Pokemon : Land and Knight
by Stephy825
Summary: About the newbie trainer Riku as he starts his journey in Sinnoh. And as usual, the adventure is going to be filled with surprises like talking Pokemon, old and new friends, some evil team group, and a secret that he'll soon find about himself! OLD STORY
1. Prologue

A/N : Okay...so my first story in fanfiction and my second story I've made (I don't plan on placing it here...yet.) Most of my characters are OCs except for the...people who are important...(I can't seem to find the word for them.) like Rowan...and the Gym leaders, and others.

So...please review my story. :D

* * *

~Prologue~

A gentle wind blows by...

The trees rustle softly...

It's a silent evening tonight...

As all pokémon are sleeping...

along with a young boy...

who dreams about going back home...

to the one he promised...

that he would return...

-o-

The boy slept under the shade...

of the great tree home to all pokémon...

in the forest or beyond...

they were all at peace...

when somebody came...

and the boy woke up and knew...

he wasn't supposed to be here...

He came to destroy the peace,

the happiness this place has...

He planned to...

plunge the whole world into darkness...

-o-

The boy got up and woke up his friends...

who somehow knew what was happening...

he tried his best to defend the tree...

where all pokémon were still sleeping...

The battle began right away...

but the enemy was too strong...

one by one...each of his pokémon...

fell into a deep sleep and into a never ending nightmare...

-o-

He had nowhere to escape...

the enemy was laughing...

He went closer to the boy...

and...the next thing...was a piercing scream...

Which woke up all the pokémon in that tree...

but the only thing they saw...

was a small pendant...

and the boy and his pokémon...

were gone without a trace...

the only thing they heard...

was the evil laugh echoing in the night...

* * *

It was never meant to be a poem, yet I can't think of a good prologue so...oh well.


	2. Chapter 1: The Adventure Begins!

Okay, I read over the chapter, and I thought it sucked, so instead of giving a new chapter, I rewrote the first one. Don't worry I'll post 16th chapter soon. I just wanted to get _this _first over with. Oh yeah, please review people!! :D

* * *

Chapter 1 - The Adventure begins!

_*RRRRIIIIIINNNNNGGGG!!!!*_

"Mm...." the loud ringing sounds continued. "...shut up...." the sphere-shaped red and white alarm clock didn't mind him. The clock made like a Voltorb, kept on doing what it was programmed to do, to wake up sleepy people.

Finally, the boy gave up and slowly raised his arm to stop the alarm. He nearly missed, but he was able to hit the button that would stop the ball from vibrating.

_*click*_

The child sighed as he sluggishly sat up from his blue-colored bed. The boy had a young face; he was only ten and had jade-green eyes. He ruffled his ochre hair and stared at the thing that woke him up. The Voltorb on top the nearby brown shelf read 7:00 am, which came as a shock to the boy since he never woke up this early....

Rubbing his eyes, he stared at the window not far from where he was. Gazing at the sky, he sighed. A flock of Starly flew passed him, then he remembered.

"Oh yeah, today's the day I get my first pokémon..." he said casually. He was about to lie down again when he suddenly realized what he just said. "_Today?!_ Oh man how can I forget that?!" he jumped out of the bed and went to the bathroom, took a quick bath, brushed his teeth and dried himself up. After checking his hair he got his clothes from the closet opposite from the bed.

He grabbed his midnight blue undershirt and his sky blue jacket. He wore his beige pants and his rubber shoes. As he slung the backpack which was prepared by him yesterday, he felt like he was all ready to go--

"Oh right, can't forget brother's pendant." he picked up a small trinket on his desk. The tiny pendant was in a shape of a circle and it was color gold. It had four small spaces separated by an 'x' shaped engraved on the pendant. He smiled at it for the ornament was given to him by his older brother before he left in his own journey. The kid treasured it like it was the most precious thing in the world. It reminded him so much of his dear brother. Clenching it tightly, he wore it around his neck, and walked out of the room.

* * *

After slowly descending down the stairs, he tiptoed to the door and gently opened it. A light breeze blew on his face as soon as he faced the grassy plain. He sighed to himself as he closed the door to his own home, hoping that he didn't make a sound or if someone knew he was gone from his room.

Today's his tenth birthday, a day where all children who loved (or simply knew) pokémon wait impatiently for. The time they are allowed to venture the outside world as much as they please, meeting new people and pokémon in the process, and also for some, to gain the eight badges they need to compete in the Pokémon League. This boy was one of them; at least, it's what he plans to do. He'll become a pokémon trainer just like his brother. And maybe while exploring the Sinnoh region, find out something he's been questioning for so long.

He looked back at the large house. He made a small frown, because if everything goes smoothly, he won't be back here for a while. Maybe longer than that...but whatever they--no wait, _she_ says, that won't stop him.

* * *

"Okay, first I have to go to Professor Rowan's place. That way I could get my starter pokémon..." he made sure that he didn't miss anything, and then he headed to the lab not far from his home. He lived in Sandgem town, the same as where the professor's lab is, so it didn't take him long before he was standing in front of the automatic, translucent door.

"Calm yourself Riku...it's just the professor. What's there to worry about?" he was worried that he might call his grandma or something. His whole plan to go before she woke up would be ruined....

Before he knew it, he was inside. The whole place seemed deserted...well it was only seven in the morning. Riku wished that there was someone here at least so he could get this over--

"Chim...char!!!" the to-be trainer heard a loud cry at one of the rooms. Suddenly, a booming sound, probably an explosion, followed it. The boy didn't waste time thinking what it was, he just ran as fast as he could to the room. When he entered, he was greeted with two pokémon fighting, another pokémon eating its food, and an unconscious guy on the floor. The whole placed looked like it was hit by some mini fire storm!

"Chimchar!" a small fire pokémon shot out small but somewhat hurtful flaming balls at the other pokémon. The fire pokémon looked like a small chimp. It had orange fur, but some parts of its body were light brown. What caught Riku was that the pokémon's tail was actually a tiny flame.

"Pi...plup!" the other pokémon dodged the Ember attack (at least that's what Riku presumes was the attack the fire pokémon used) and burst out its own attack, a bunch of fast moving bubbles from its beak. The water pokémon looked like a small penguin and a light-blue body. With its circular head and a blue...cape, no wonder many people find this pokémon _cute_. The thing is...he had forgotten their names...

"Turtwig...." Riku turned his attention to the turtle on the table. The pokémon had been eating the whole time with its yellow jaw, as if oblivious to the argument above him.(The other two seemed to have a liking to the shelves...) This grass-type pokémon looked like a light-green turtle, and its shell is color brown with a black line in the middle and a black outline. The grass pokémon also had a tiny sprout sticking out of its head.

The boy didn't know what to do...the guy on the floor gave him an idea that rushing into those two was a really bad plan. "Hey!! You two stop fighting!!" he yelled at them. The two pokémon stared at him for a moment, and then like they weren't disturbed they continued to attack each other with bubbles and balls of flame.

"They didn't mind me at all...." he faced the other pokémon who was still munching away.

"Can't you do anything about this?" he asked. The pokémon looked at him and yawned, like it was saying _'I don't want to get between those two.'_

"Come on...at least do something!"

The pokémon sighed. "Tur...twig!" the turtle launched out lots of sharp leaves at the duo. Surprisingly, they stopped fighting and jumped from the upper shelves. The glared at each other like they were saying_ 'We'll settle this next time...'_, then they just stood there on top of the table, with the smirking pokémon in the middle. Riku got the message loud and clear.

"Thanks. That was one powerful Razor Leaf you know." the turtle seemed happy with the compliment, then slept.

"What's going on?!" a voice came from outside the room. Riku froze; he knew that voice anywhere...

An old man entered the room he was in. He was wearing a simple, white lab coat and was staring at the boy. That glare gave Riku the chills....

"S-sorry professor. When I got here, they were fighting about something..."

"No it's fine Riku. At least there wasn't much damage."

"Tell that to your assistant." they both looked at the guy on the floor, who was now sleeping...and drooling.


	3. Chapter 2: Which Starter?

Yeah so I thought my second chapter also was bad so I finally pushed my laziness and re-typed it. I know some of you guys were expecting an update, but I ask you to be patient. Reviews would help...

* * *

Chapter 2 – Which Starter?

It took a few minutes for Professor Rowan to calm the pokémon down enough to leave them alone. Now Riku and the professor were sitting on a reddish couch, with the sleeping assistant lying down on the one opposite to them.

"Why were they fighting anyway Professor? They must have started fighting over something from the looks of it..." the professor nodded his head in agreement, though it would be better if the assistant could explain this himself. "What's his name again?"

"Kiyoshi, Riku. It's rude to forget people's names like that."

"Sorry...can't help it." Kiyoshi had navy blue hair and wore transparent oval glasses, which is slightly broken right now. He was wearing a lab coat like Professor Rowan only a smidge smaller, yet at the moment it's filled with dirt and a few burnt marks. Thankfully, Kiyoshi wasn't hurt by what Riku guessed to be the fire pokémon's Ember attacks.

"So Riku, while I wait for my assistant to wake up, you may choose your starter pokémon now."

"Are you sure..?" he asked cautiously.

"They should be calm enough now not to attack you...I hope. Just be wary of Chimchar and Piplup alright?" Riku made another guess that Chimchar was the chimp pokemon and Piplup was the penguin pokémon.

"Um...okay." he stood up from the comfortable couch and started to walk to the room, leaving Professor Rowan with a lightly snoring guy at his twenties.

The professor stared at Kiyoshi and sighed. "Honestly, he should at least act more mature when he's sleeping..." he shook his head. "Ah well, he can't help it. Scolding him about it might make it worse." he turned his attention back to the room where the three pokémon are supposed to be in. He was expecting to hear some kind of sound of a door sliding, but he didn't notice anything...

"Riku?" no answer...

"My ears must be playing tricks on me...I'm getting old..." he mumbled in a slight mixture of horror and annoyance.

* * *

"I have to choose my partner out of these pokémon huh?" he mused. Chimchar was at the corner nearby the door, which surprised Riku when he first came in. Piplup was at the far end of the room, also huddled in a corner. They didn't say anything, though occasionally, he could hear muffled cries from the two. That made Riku chuckle a bit. He also found the grass pokémon still on top of the table. "Oh...I forgot to ask what the name was." he thought. "I guess I'll just go back. After all, it's going to take awhile for me to choose out of these guys..."

The boy walked out of the room, then saw that Professor Rowan was nowhere in sight. "That's weird. Where did he go?" he took a glance at the couch and still found Kiyoshi mumbling in his sleep. Something about eating..?

He didn't mind him that much, because if he's practically alone here, then that only leaves one thing...

"Time to explore!" he yelled enthusiastically. The assistant made a loud snore, which made Riku cover him mouth with his hand. "I have to be careful not to wake up whatever-his-name-is..." he thought. The boy started to wander around the lab since he wasn't ever allowed to before. And knowing these kinds of stories, they soon end up...somewhere.

"Ah...where is the lobby again?" he wondered. The building was a lot bigger than he expected, and now he had found himself walking aimlessly around looking for familiar territory. He hates getting lost, but Riku has a bad sense of direction, so 'lost' can already be considered normal for him.

Suddenly, he saw a grayish blue door, just like the one that held the three pokémon in! Riku eagerly rushed towards it and opened the door, only to reveal not pokémon, but tons of machinery. The place was huge, and lots of wires were spread around, so it was easy to trip over something quickly. The boy then noticed something in the middle of everything. Trying his best not to fall, he was able to get a better look at it but still from afar. It was an egg, a pokémon egg to be exact, with a white shell covered in red and green spots. But the egg was one he didn't recognize, a new species perhaps?

Out of the blue an explosion occurred, surrounding the whole area with smoke. Riku couldn't see anything because it was so thick, but he heard something that scared him, the sound of a glass breaking. When the thick, gray cloud finally vanished, he immediately found the egg to be missing, along with a large hole in the wall. Without thinking he ran outside, in search for the person who stole the egg.

* * *

It was hard to keep up with him in the forest and Riku was starting to get tired. He was panting heavily yet lucky for Riku, the poacher was nearby. He had a black beret hat on his head, though you can still see that he had dark auburn colored hair. His outfit consists of a black t-shirt and dark pants with same colored boots. But it was his dark eyes that sort of scared Riku. It's like everything about him was dark and sinister...

"Finally...the pokémon egg is mine!" he grinned. "Now I can get the rewards that I deserve..!" then he laughed hysterically. The boy was just hiding behind a tree, listening quietly to the poacher.

"I can't let him have the egg..!" Riku thought. "But what can I do?" he glimpsed at the laughing poacher. Right now he must have his guard down; he won't expect a surprise attack...right? If he takes the correct position, it'll be easy to knock him out with a good, strong tackle assuming his body isn't that muscular.

"Now!" Riku closed his eyes and ran with full force.


	4. Chapter 3 : Lost, again

The next thing he knew, he hit something or someone, hard. Then he felt the figure falling on the ground. Opening his eyes again, he saw that he fortunately hit the target he wanted directly at the center; the egg was just lying on the ground nearby the unconscious guy. "I'll be taking that." Riku muttered to the man as he picked up the oval-shaped thing from the soil. Riku smiled at his victory over the attack, and started to walk away deeper into the forest.

The only problem was he wasn't paying attention to where he was going.

"Whaa...don't tell me I got lost again?" he whined to himself as he looked up at the peaceful sky above him. Frowning, he let his body lay down, leaning on the trunk of the tree. Riku sighed, it may take him hours just to find his way back..."If I'm that unlucky." he mumbled sadly. He looked down at the egg wrapped around by both of his arms. He thought about it, and with confidence in his eyes, he decided to find his way back as soon as he could, for the egg's sake-

"Wait a sec; didn't the professor hear the explosion awhile ago? I didn't see anyone behind me, but I'm positive that it was loud enough to shake the whole building..." the boy suddenly beamed. "Maybe he's looking for me right now!" getting up from his position, he ran down a random path excitedly in hopes of bumping into the man and finally getting out of this huge group of trees.

* * *

_Meanwhile, back at the lab..._

Kiyoshi continued to snore loudly in the couch, his arms stretched out of the bed he was on as well. At the same time, Rowan went to his private study because he was thinking that Riku was taking his time in choosing, though it normally doesn't take that long, he knew that Riku was a little different. Strange to say that he fell asleep all of a sudden after gazing at the one file he got from the shelf. So...yeah, they missed the explosion.

* * *

_Back at the forest..._

"Why do I have a feeling that those two are just sleeping in comfortable places..?" Riku mumbled with a dazed, annoyed, and tired look on his face. He had skipped breakfast to avoid the goodbye, which was a bad idea. The boy was starving...he could hear the growling sounds coming from his stomach, demanding food as soon as possible. He couldn't do that, Riku was in the middle of a forest, with not a single berry tree in sight. Leaning on another random tree, he closed his eyes for a few seconds to rest, only to be interrupted by another growl from his tummy. "Ugh...so hungry..." he clutched his stomach tightly to stop it from grumbling; it didn't work. He stared at the egg again. No way was he ever going to try eating it, that would be just plain wrong...for him anyway. Though if he didn't find a food source soon, he might actually collapse!

"Come on Riku...tough it out...Professor Rowan's lab has to be close...or somewhere around here..." he somehow managed a little smirk to form. "At least...I have the egg that poacher was trying to steal."

Suddenly, a light green powder flew out of nowhere, surrounding Riku entirely. By mistake, he already inhaled it, and as soon as he did, he immediately realized what it was. "S-sleep powder..!" he coughed. His vision grew even more blurry, dropping the egg in the process. Falling on the ground, he was able to make out two figures approaching him. "U-uh...no...don't..." he passed out afterward.

"Hehe, not so tough now are you brat." the man sneered. It was the same guy that tried to steal the egg before, but this time he had back-up...it stood on two legs, and had a blue and red rose for arms. It had a three-spiked head on top, and its body is mostly covered with leaves.

A Roselia. "Rose!" it smirked along with its master, happy that he was able to please him.

The poacher picked up the egg and tossed it to the Pokémon, catching it easily. Then, he carried the boy into his shoulder and turned to his companion. "Hah, these prizes will make awesome gifts to the boss won't they?"

"Roselia-Roselia!" he cried back happily. The man laughed aloud along with the grass type Pokémon. Riku was already unconscious now; the tables have turned on him. And now the two started to head back to their base, where they would show their accomplishments to the head and hope that it would be sufficient enough for a raise.

Kiyoshi and Rowan, who were still napping, had no idea what had happened to the boy, or the egg.

* * *

A/N : I rewrote it, and it still ended up being way too short. Never mind, you were expecting an update, I know. But I had a feeling I had to finish this up first...you know?


	5. Chapter 4: Kidnapped

..."...urgh..."...he slowly opened his eyes. He was staring at a grey wall with...bars..? He got up...his head felt dizzy...he tried to stand, but his legs still felt weak.

"Wh-where am I..? What happened?" he said. He couldn't remember how he got here....then he noticed a pokémon guarding the steel door. It looked like it was actually sleeping...It was Roselia!

"N-now I remember! The poacher...his Roselia must have used sleep powder on me to steal the pokémon egg..." he thought. "That must be a strong Roselia...my body still feels weak up to now..." his vision finally cleared. He realized he was trapped in a cage with a electric lock on it...the bars looked sturdy...it looked impossible to break with brute force...the only way out was to destroy the lock.

Riku didn't know what to do...the only thing he could do now is to wait...and hope a miracle happens.

* * *

Meanwhile...back at the lab...

Professor Rowan stood up from his comfortable seat. He looked at the old, brown clock in his room. 10:00am...Has Riku been waiting this whole time? He walked out and went to the large room. On the couch was Kiyoshi, still sleeping like a baby. The professor sighed heavily. Was he that badly hurt?

Suddenly he realized the whole lab was really quiet. Too quiet. Rowan felt like something bad just happened. He checked the room with the three pokémon.

He was shocked to see that Riku wasn't there. Chimchar and Piplup were still at the corner of the room, looking bored but angry still. And Turtwig was still sleeping on the table.

Now he was really worried. Had Riku got lost in the lab? Or did he go back to his house? Rowan went to look around the lab just in case. When he went around the hallways, he noticed one of the doors looked badly beaten up...that was the room the egg was in!

Rowan quickly rushed into the room. He was completely shocked. There was a large hole in the wall...probably made by a bomb. The egg was gone...the only thing left was broken machinery...it must have been a poacher...somehow they learned about the precious egg!

Then he thought of something that made him even more worried...what if Riku followed him? What if he went to the forest by himself? He could get into big trouble! He had to hurry and find him...

He ran outside from the opening in the wall. He completely forgot about his sleeping assistant.

* * *

"Yawn~ That was a good nap..." he stretched his arms a bit and sat up from the couch. "Professor?" the whole lab was silent..."Wasn't there something I had to do..?" he thought deeply, trying his best to remember what it was...

"Oh yeah! The new trainer was supposed to be coming today!" he quickly stood up and ran to the room with the three pokémon.

"Chim...char..."... "Pi....plup..."... "ZzZzZz...." the three pokémon were in the room. Chimchar and Piplup looked really bored and sleepy so just to amuse themselves, they actually apologized to each other. Then after that they fell on the table, now asleep along with Turtwig.

"Have they been waiting this long?" he thought. "The new trainer should have been here by now..." he went to the other side of the room and got three poke balls.

"Okay you guys...time to rest in your poke balls." he said as he held the three red and white balls. Suddenly a red energy beam shot out from each of them and returned the three pokémon inside. Then after that he sighed. He put down the three poke balls at the table and went out of the room.

"Where are they..?" he thought. He decided he'll go take care of the other pokémon in the lab. He went directly to the other room. It was filled with thousands of poke balls, all of them on rows of shelves filling the whole room. This was the room where all the other trainers' pokémon were stored. Every now and then they had to take care of the pokémon here. He didn't want to go anywhere so he stayed in the room...completely unaware of the situation at hand...

* * *

"Where could he be..?" Professor Rowan was running around the forest, in hoping to find Riku or the egg anywhere.

Nothing. He started panicking. Right now...something terrible might be happening to Riku...or the egg! If he doesn't find them soon, the whole town could be in trouble...or more than that....

Suddenly he noticed a light green powder wafting in the air. He knew what it was immediately. But it was too faint to cause someone to fall asleep, let alone a person getting dizzy. But why would a pokémon use sleep powder here?

He also noticed a small mark nearby a tree...Riku! He must have sat there recently! But where did he go? The wafting powder gave Rowan an answer that scared him. He just hoped that he wasn't too late.

* * *

"There has to be some way out of here!" Riku thought. He was still in the cage, and he's really hungry. But he's more concerned about the Roselia and the egg. He stared at the bars. No way could he break them apart with his own hands. If only he had a pokémon to break it...

"That's it! Roselia! I have to make it attack the cage somehow!" he thought. "I just hope it doesn't know what I'm planning..."

"Hey Roselia!!" Riku shouted. The Roselia shook and looked at him with an annoyed face.

"Why did your master leave you here to guard me?" the Roselia looked away from him, as if it was of no interest.

"Hey maybe he thinks this is the only job you can do right!" now the Roselia turned to Riku with a evil glare.

"All right it's working!" Riku thought. "What if I told your master that you were sleeping on the job, then that will really make your master hate you..!"

"Ro..!" Its eyes were like on fire! "Rose..lia!!!!" It shot out lots of colorful leaves at rapid speeds. It hit the cage so hard that the bars were cut like butter.

A large explosion followed afterward. Roselia was in a slight daze. The cage was completely destroyed.

"Yes! My plan worked!" Riku said as he ran out of the cage. He quickly went out of the gray door.

"I have to get out of here!" he thought as he ran through a long hallway.

Soon he was at a large room which had other hallways connected to it. The exit could be anywhere in this big building!

"Roselia!!!!" he heard the pokémon screaming behind him. If this keeps up, other people might hear it and know what happened. He had a bad feeling that this building is crawling with poachers like the one he met.

He quickly ran to a random hallway. He wondered if Roselia was still following him.

*THUD*

"Owww...." Since Riku wasn't paying attention to where he was going, he bumped into a dead end. He noticed that there was a single door right in from of him.

"Ro.....selia..!" Riku started to panic. He tried to open the door. No use, the door was locked! "Ro....."

"Come on....open up already..!" he heard Roselia went closer. "No...this can't happen..!"

Suddenly the door glowed light blue...then the door opened smoothly right in front of him.

"H-how did that--" Riku quickly shook his head. There was no time to be amazed, he had to escape! He rushed inside the room.

It was a large, gray room. The whole room was filled with machines that looked a lot more complicated than the ones in Rowan's lab. In the middle, was the pokémon egg they stole! Riku wanted to snatch it away, but before he could, he heard Roselia's steps nearby. He looked around to see if he could hide anywhere. He spotted a normal looking door. Perfect. He ran towards it and tried to open the door. Thankfully it wasn't locked so he opened the door with ease. He closed the door and waited. The room was completely dark. He couldn't see anything at all.

"Star..." a small cry came out.

"Huh? What was that..?" his eyes couldn't adjust to the darkness yet, but he could make out a few figures. They looked like small cubes...and there was something in them...birds?

Suddenly he heard steps. It must the Roselia. Does it know where is he hiding?

"Roselia!" Riku heard more steps, heavy ones. His voice sounded familiar...

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching that brat's cage remember?!" he shouted.

"N-now I remember! That's the poacher' voice!" he peered at the small window. Two figures were standing nearby the door...one a lot smaller than the other. Definitely them. Soon they both went out of the room. Now everything was silent...

"What should I do now..?" he wondered. Going out of the room now would be too dangerous. They could still be nearby. If he got caught, he would just be put to sleep again and be in that small cage again. He can't risk being captured again...

"Star..." the small cry surprised him. He was so focused about escaping that he forgot what was behind him. He now knew what was behind him, and then, he had an idea.


	6. Chapter 5: First Battle

*Click!*

"There. That's the last cage." the little pokémon scurried out hurriedly and joined the other pokémon who lined up behind Riku.

Riku bended down towards them. "Are you guys all alright?" the pokémon nodded with a smile.

"Okay here's the deal. We all want to get out of here right?"

"Shinx!" this pokémon looked like a small blue lion. "Starly!" this pokémon looked like a small gray and white bird. "Bidoof!" This pokémon looked like a little brown beaver. "Budew!" this pokémon was a small bud pokémon. "Kricketot!" this pokémon looked like a tiny cricket that was colour red. It seemed like they all agreed.

"Right. Now see, the egg outside of this little room is really important to me. So we have to work together and try to take down those poachers one by one." they were soon discussing about what to do and what to do when they encounter one or multiple poachers. For some reason he could understand what they wanted to say, but he didn't really care about it now, he first wanted to get out of here. After a couple of minutes they were ready to escape. It still was risky because they didn't know how big this building was or where the hallways would lead to. But that didn't stop them to escape from this place.

*creak*

Riku peered out of the small storage room. Nobody in sight. That's good. At least this will make snatching the egg easier.

He quickly tiptoed towards the egg while the pokémon closely follow right behind him. He noticed that there was actually a glass case surrounding the egg.

"Starly, use Wing Attack on the glass." Riku whispered. The little bird floated closely towards it and built some power in its wings before it stroked the glass.

"Star....." its wings suddenly turned black to glowing white.

"...Now!" Starly quickly smashed its wing on the glass. Then it used its other wing and smacked it again. Starly kept on using Wing attack until...

*Crack*

"You did it Starly! Now one more time! Wing Attack!"

*CRACK*...*BREAK!*

"Good Job Starly." Riku said. Starly gave out a happy cry. Now there was a big hole in the glass easy enough to get the egg out.

"Now let's get out of here." He said while carrying the egg in his arms. It felt somewhat nice for it to be there again. But before they could move, someone opened the door.

"Ro--?!" It was Roselia! And to make matters worse, his owner was with him too!

"You! How did you get here?!" the poacher looked at the small pokémon surrounding him. Then he shifted his glare to Riku, who was trembling with fear. He noticed that Riku was holding the egg he just stole.

"I can't believe you had the guts to release the pokémon we caught and try to get the egg back! You're braver than I thought. But play time's over. Hand over the egg brat or you're going to take a hard beating." he stepped closer to Riku, but Shinx quickly stepped forward and made a low growl.

"Oh very cute. You're going to protect him you little piece of trash?" Shinx growled again in an angrier tone. It started to build up sparks from its body. Riku recognized what it was doing immediately.

"You think you can defeat me?! Well think again! Tackle Roselia!" Roselia quickly ran toward Shinx at full speed. Shinx made a growl to Riku. At first he didn't understand but when Roselia was at close range he nodded.

"Shinx! Dodge it!" and at once Shinx made a powerful jump in the air as soon as Roselia tried to attack. Roselia got mad and shot out a Magical Leaf attack. But Shinx quickly dodged it all like it was nothing. Soon both of them were on the ground again, and Shinx was still building up electricity from its body.

"Urgh! Just stay still you little--!" the poacher was already getting irritated. "Roselia! Change of plan! Use Leech Seed!" Roselia quickly nodded and shot out a seed from its hands. At first Shinx was about to dodge it, but Riku shouted out a different command.

"Shinx! Release the electricity and use Spark at full power!" Shinx hesitated but still followed. He released it all which glowed around Shinx's body with a really bright, yellow glow. With the electric current around him, he quickly ran forward straight head on toward the seed and Roselia. When the seed came in contact, it actually disintegrated into ash, and Shinx kept on going towards Roselia. Roselia was frozen in fear but the poacher wasn't worried...at least it looked like he wasn't.

"Roselia! Solarbeam!" Roselia placed his hands together and started to build up power but Shinx was really quick and tackled it, hard. And Roselia was on the ground...

Riku thought it was actually over. That he won....his first real battle and he won....right? But he spoke too soon. Roselia's hands were still glowing, it was still charging its Solarbeam!

"But how--?!" Riku was shocked. He was sure that attack would have finished it. If it didn't then it would have at least stop that attack. But it still gained more power, and the poacher laughed at Riku.

"You really think that attack would be enough? Don't you dare underestimate us brat! Roselia's power is ten times more powerful than that little Shinx! That Spark was nothing! Nothing at all!" he said with a ton of confidence. Roselia slowly and shakily stood up and gave an evil grin. Raising up its arms while shaking, its hands were glowing white. It was ready with its Solarbeam, yet the poacher was wrong about how powerful Shinx was. Roselia actually took a lot of damage...even though it wasn't that very effective. Roselia was panting hard, but that wasn't enough reason to let its master down now.

Shinx stood there and charging up electricity again. But Riku knew he couldn't handle another powerful Spark attack. Shinx was already as tired as Roselia was. At this point he had to think of something quick before the poacher commands Roselia to use Solarbeam. But what could he do? Shinx seems too tired to do any physical attacks...unless....

"Hey brat. Since you're out of options I'll give you one last chance. Give me the egg and nobody gets hurt alright?" then he laughed loudly again. "Right now you should do what I say if you want what's best for you. There's no way you could win this battle now!" Roselia was getting ready to unleash his attack.

Riku didn't respond. "Hey brat! Are you listening to me?! Or are you now too scared to speak?"

Suddenly Riku grinned. "W-what's so funny huh brat?!" he looked anxious for some weird reason.

"You're right...there's no way I could win with another Spark attack....but still..." he looked at Shinx. Soon Shinx smiled back. "It doesn't mean that's the only attack it can make! Shinx use Shock Wave!!" Shinx quickly gained power and unleashed a large thunderbolt and hit Roselia directly.

"No way! Roselia!!" Roselia was on the floor now. Completely burnt and already fainted.

"Now you underestimated Shinx. A while ago we were discussing our plans, that little Shinx actually came from a very powerful tribe of electric pokémon. And their specialty was actually using the move Shock Wave. It's a bit surprising for you isn't it?" Riku felt really proud. His first win in a real battle! And it's all thanks to Shinx...

But the poacher wasn't ready to give up just yet. "Whatever. It's just Roselia. I'm still standing here and I can stop you even without Roselia!" he started running towards Riku. But Riku just shook his head. "Bidoof, use Tackle on him!" and Bidoof quickly sprang up and hit the poacher hard. Of course the poacher stood no chance and he was on the floor. Unconscious like his pokémon.

"Good Job Bidoof. Now it's time to get out of here!" and with that, Riku and the other pokémon quickly ran out of the room leaving the two of them behind with their swirly eyes...


	7. Chapter 6: Dash and Escape

Chapter 6 - Dash and Escape

"It's the large room again..." Riku mumbled. He was peeking at the large room connected to a lot of hallways. The small pokémon shivered slightly and went closer to Riku's leg. Thankfully the whole place doesn't seem really alarmed. It looked like they didn't know that they just escaped. Riku waited a bit...but not a single person liked the guy they battled ever came by. Grasping the egg a little tighter, he made his decision.

"Let's go." right now he's relying totally on luck. But he didn't tell the pokémon that. He didn't want them to get scared...but because of everything that has happened to him...he didn't feel so confident of his luck anymore...

Nonetheless he still chose the hallway that he first picked.

But...as he somehow expected, his luck was really bad that time after all. Because soon after he ran towards the other hallway, a poacher appeared from another and gasped. He was about to sound an alarm nearby but Kricketot reacted faster than him and used Bug Bite on him.

"No Kricketot! Don't do--"

_*BITE*_..."YEOOOOOOWWW!!!!" the poacher gave out a scream so loud it echoed through the whole building. At least it really looked liked it. Because soon after he screamed (and fainted out of pain), Riku could hear lots of steps approaching their direction.

"That is not a good sign. Quick everybody! We have to get out of here!" Riku quickly led the pokémon to the hallway and tried to run as fast as he could.

"Kricketot..."

"No it's not your fault Kricketot." Riku said trying to comfort the small bug pokémon. "Even if you didn't bite him he would have still sounded the alarm and we would still be chased anyway." but still Kricketot felt a bit guilty about the whole thing while all of them were running.

Soon they came to a dead end. The only thing in front of them now was a well-decorated door, which sort of surprised Riku a bit. He tried to open it, but as he thought it was locked. Yet this time he had a few pokémon by his side.

"Alright then! Everyone, use Tackle at the door all at once!" they quickly nodded and rammed the door as hard as they could. Well, even though something is well decorated it doesn't mean it was strong. So after their first try they broke down the door easily.

Inside the room was really well-decorated as the door. It had shelves, a red carpet, a shiny brown desk and everything! But what Riku really liked about it most is that it had a large window leading outside. It'll be easy breaking it, but they had to hurry because the poachers were really fast approaching.

"Okay Shinx, ready for one more Shock Wave?" Shinx replied with a lot of sparks coming out of it's body, ready to shoot it's attack.

"Let's go! Shinx use Shock Wave!" Shinx released all its stored electricity in its body and shot out a huge bolt of electricity towards the window. And of course it easily shattered into pieces. Leaving a big hole enough for Riku and the others to jump through.

Soon, Riku set foot on the green grass again. For some reason it felt like forever that he actually got out. But now's not the time to think about it. They needed to get deeper into the forest. Or if he get's lucky (which he really highly doubts), he could bump into Professor Rowan and he could help them.

But...what about the pokémon? Riku looked at them while they were running aimlessly around the forest.

He stopped and turned towards the small pokémon, who were wondering why suddenly what he was doing.

"H-how should I say this..?" he thought, then sighed. "Well it's now or never. And I better do it quickly."

"Look you guys. I think we need to split up now." the pokémon cried all at once, suddenly really confused to what Riku just said. "You wanted to go back to your families right? Well now's the time. You don't need to follow me anymore." they all stared at him. Then Shinx walked forward. It gave out a low growl and rub it's head on Riku. He bent down patted him on the head, but he soon quickly jerked his hand away.

"You're wild pokémon remember? Besides what those poachers want now is this egg, not you guys." they still didn't budge. "I just...don't want you guys getting into trouble again and get captured. I'll be fine don't worry about it. But really you have to leave. Now."

The pokémon looked at each other, then at Riku. Then soon the pokémon started to run away from him...except Shinx.

"Shinx..." he really didn't want to go.

Riku stared at him, then stood up and turned away. "You better follow them if you don't want to get left behind Shinx." he gave out another cry. "Just leave alright?!" Riku shouted. With another small, unhappy cry, Shinx walked away to join the rest of the other escaped pokémon.

"I'm sorry...Shinx. But this is my problem now." he started to run again. This time, with no one following him.

* * *

It's been a while since Riku has escaped the building. For some reason there weren't any poachers on his tracks. He hadn't seen any of them after he and the pokémon split up. He thought about Shinx again. What if...they were the ones being chased now? _*rustle*_

Riku gasped in surprise. He kept his voice down and crouched lower so that he won't be seen. He slowly turned his head to see what caused that noise...

"Hey check over there. I think there's somebody nearby." someone said.

Poachers...so they were still looking for him after all. This is bad...they may have heard him. If they spotted him then escaping the place would have been a waste of time. Riku would have to walk away as quietly as he can....

_*Snap*_ Riku cringed at the sight of the broken twig.

"What was that?!" they faced Riku's direction. They walked closer and closer to him. He had no other choice but to make a run for it.

"...Now!" he made his first step powerful enough to make a head start. The poachers were actually stunned for a few seconds but chased after him soon after. One of them held a communicator, which Riku knew he was contacting the others and he'll be in bigger trouble unless he gets them out of his trail again.

* * *

...Meanwhile at another part of the forest...

"Hey I just heard that they found the kid who stole the egg!" one poacher said. He obviously looked like a complete newbie to the group.

"Really now? Trace the coordinates. We have to get there as soon as possible." another one said. He looked more experienced than the other guy.

"Alright!" he looked excited. He ran around for no reason and to his dumb luck, he stepped on a Torterra's tail.

"TOR--?!" it quickly got up and glared at the two people. It looked really annoyed and angry.

"N-nice Torterra....please calm down a bit..." one of the poachers aid trying to make some gestures.

But of course it didn't work. "TORTERRA!!" it lifted its front legs and smashed the ground really hard. "Gah!! Earthquake!!" and they were easily thrown out by its massive power. But it didn't calm down after that. With a bad mood he stomped towards a random direction in the forest, attacking anyone who'll be in his way...

* * *

"Is this forest endless or something?!" Riku thought. It's been like forever since he was being chased. They didn't look like they were getting tired at all. And of course there were more than two now than a while ago. Now it was one large group of people who were wearing the same outfit chasing Riku while he was holding the egg they are so desperately after for some mysterious reason..._*rumble*_

Everyone stopped. The ground was shaking a lot. It was powerful enough to toss Riku unbalanced and made him fall on the ground with the egg. And worse, when he fell, he accidentally lost his grip on the egg.

Riku watched in horror as the egg easily rolled down in the forest. He could barely stand up because the earthquake was so powerful that the ground was still shaking. Soon though, he quickly stood up and ran after it.

His heart was racing, fast. He had to run faster, faster...or else the egg....

"Got it!" he said triumphantly. He was about to run again when he realized where he was standing on. "A....a cliff?!" he hastily flinched and stepped back. But then to his horror, the poachers were right behind him. They were surrounding him, and made sure he couldn't run anywhere else.

"Give us the egg now." one of them said bluntly. He looked like the leader of the bunch because he was wearing different clothes than the others. He didn't wear a hat for starters. He had red spiky hair and silver eyes. His outfit looked more like the clothes you would find in the military. It scared Riku a little but he won't let that guy beat him.

"N-no way!" Riku quickly replied. "Whatever you want to do with this egg, I know it will be something sinister. So why the heck should I give it to you poachers!"

"Poachers? Hah." he gave a serious glare at Riku. "Why would you call us that?" it looked like he was toying with him.

"W-well..." these guys were making Riku tremble easily. Should he reply..? But for what then? All that we're doing now is stalling...and is that really a good thing or not..? "You're the one who stole the egg from the Professor's lab! That's reason enough to think that you're poachers!" he knew he could have made a better comeback but...this really isn't the time to think for that. He needs to find a way out...but...if he's not careful...it could cost him his life!

"Hmph. Enough. Now give us the egg or--" *_STOMP_* the whole ground started to shake again! _*STOMP*...*STOMP*...*STOMP*_...

"Wh-what the?! What kind of creature is doing this?!" it was obvious the leader was terrified. Even more than Riku was.

Then somehow, right on cue, came out the rampaging Torterra! "TOR-TERRA!!!" it looked really angry at everybody.

It raised his body again up high. "I-it's going to do an Earthquake attack!" the leader shouted. All the poachers quickly scrambled around. But Riku was frozen in place. He was terrified. The leader saw the young boy just...standing there. He quickly turned away and continued on running...but for some reason, he regretted doing it.

"TORTE-RRAA!!" *_STOMP*_ the whole ground shook violently. Riku noticed the ground cracking below him. Before he could dodge it, it crumbled. Then...

"Aaaaahhh!!"


	8. Chapter 7: If only a miracle

Chapter 7 - If only a miracle...

_

* * *

When you watch cartoons, and you see someone fall of a sheer cliff, the only thing you would do is laugh. But...what if it happened to you? Would...you still be laughing?_

* * *

"Aaaaahhh!!" Riku's scream was echoing as he fell from the cliff that he once stood on and now going to crash on the ground below him. He was falling...he didn't know what to do...the only thing he can only do was to wait...for him to die.

He closed his eyes waiting for his last moments to come. He could see his family now in front of him...and...he could clearly see his brother in front of him as well.

"B-big brother..." he tried to stretch out his hand, trying to hold on to the person standing there...but it was just a mere illusion...and the rest was total darkness...

_*wiggle*_

Riku suddenly opened his eyes again. The egg...he was still holding this whole time...was it...

"Is it hatching?!" it only wiggled slightly, but something was moving in there! But...too bad it would never experience living...and...it's all Riku's fault now that it would die even before it could catch it's first glimpse of the outside world...it's all...his fault...

Riku let a light tear drop out...he was almost down to his fate. But...he should at least...give this egg a chance...if only...his brother was here...

He shook his head violently "No! I can't keep on depending on him!" he thought. But deep down, he really wished he would save him. After all, he was about to actually die...

He closed his eyes once again. But this time, he was praying...wishing...hoping now what he said may actually come true...

"Please...help me...Big brother!" he closed his eyes even tighter. "Senri..!!"

Suddenly the egg glowed a bright light! It was blinding, almost as if you were staring as the sun. Riku felt the egg move even more...

_*Crack*_ one part started to show a small opening. _*Crack*_..._*Crack*_...

"I-it's really hatching!!" then it glowed even brighter than before. Riku saw he was getting close to the ground. But before he reached the forest below him, everything turned white...then black again...

* * *

"......urgh......"

"...where.....where am I?" he slowly opened his eyes. He stared at the silver floor. It looked...quite familiar.....

"Ah!" he quickly sat up. He was right. He was back at the egg room in Professor Rowan's lab!

"But how did--" he suddenly noticed a small pokémon beside him. It was pretty small and his body was white. He had a small, green helmet with a red triangle thing sticking out. Riku felt like he had seen this pokémon before but he could barely remember where...he stared at the small pokémon, which was sleeping soundly on the floor.

"Did this pokémon...come from the egg..?" he thought. He carefully carried the pokémon on his arms, trying his best not to disturb its peaceful slumber.

"Phew...it didn't wake up." he slowly walked out of the door and looked both ways. The whole place seemed really deserted again. He wondered if Rowan or his assistant could be anywhere in here....

"Wait a sec...wouldn't Professor be looking for me right now..?" he cringed. How was he supposed to explain this exactly..? And....

"Oh no! What time is it?!" he quickly looked around for a clock, but trying his best not to wake up the sleeping pokémon.

Soon he saw the main room again. Only this time...it wasn't deserted. There were four people there...and they were all sitting at the couch. One was Professor Rowan and beside him was Kiyoshi, his assistant. Professor was talking to an officer...but it wasn't just any officer....

"Ack! It's Officer Jenny!" he thought. She wore a blue officer outfit from head to toe. A person you would likely to see every town in the whole pokémon world! What always surprised Riku was how all the Officer Jennys look exactly alike! And they just claim that they're just relatives...

But he didn't focus on the officer too much. He was actually staring at the fourth person there...she was quite old. A grandmother. She was crying about something...and Riku easily knew what she was crying about...how? Well...that's his grandma.

All of them haven't noticed Riku by the hallway. But Riku thought it wouldn't be a good idea just to waltz in and say something like 'I'm fine!' or something. For the meantime, he trying to get as close as possible to hear what they were talking about...

* * *

"We need to find Riku as soon as possible. To my guess he must have been chasing down a poacher and...possibly got kidnapped." Professor Rowan said to Officer Jenny. "He really is as smart as they say!" Riku thought. He went a little closer to hear what Officer Jenny was telling Professor Rowan.

"We'll try to find him ASAP Professor." she said with a lot of confidence in her voice while saluting to him. Then she faced the woman who was still crying. "Don't worry , we'll find him soon Mrs. Harada." she said with a smile, hoping that it would cheer her up at least a little bit. But it didn't.

"Poor grandma..." Riku thought. Absentmindedly he made a loud step forward. And then suddenly realized what he had done he hastily recoiled his leg back. But it was too late. Officer Jenny already noticed the noise.

She swiftly stood up and shouted "Who are you? Show yourself! NOW!" her voice was loud and threatening. Riku didn't want to, but he had no other choice. After all it would be better than Officer Jenny stomping towards you and screaming. Riku quickly shivered at the thought and walked slowly out the hallway.

"I-i'm sorry to get you s-so worried." he stuttered. He didn't know what to say to them. After all, they were so worried about him, and now he just walks right in front of them. He closed his eyes, waiting for them to start screaming at him.

But instead of a scream, he was hugged...tightly. He saw it was his grandma was the one who hugged him.

"I-i was so worried about you Riku-chan...." she managed to say. Her eyes were filled with tears again, but this time they were tears of joy and relief. "G-grandma..." he stared at her. "It's great to see you again..." Riku said softly.

"Riku! You're okay! What a relief!" Kiyoshi suddenly shouted.

"Well...It looks like the new trainer was able to get away safely from those poachers after all...quite impressive for a newbie." Officer Jenny said with a smile.

Only Professor Rowan didn't say anything. He looked like he was thinking about something deeply. Riku wondered what but first...he felt something wriggling on his chest. Riku almost forgot about what he was carrying!

"Oh yeah! Professor! The egg..." he slowly got out of his grandmother's grip and ran towards the professor. He showed the small pokémon to him. "It already hatched to this pokémon!"

"Really now!" Rowan finally said. He looked at the pokémon with curious eyes. The small pokémon sleepily opened one eye. And then as if nothing was happening, it went back to sleep again.

"Why, it's a Ralts! And a healthy one too!" he exclaimed.

"Also a really sleepy one..." Riku added. He smiled at the pokémon on his arms. "So...this pokémon is called a Ralts huh?" then he remembered where he saw it. It was in a pokémon book that he read before. A large book about many kinds of new evolution pokémon in Sinnoh. And as he remembered, one of them was a Gallade. The Gallade looked really cool in the book and he always wanted to have one as a friend. His older brother said while Riku was looking at the book that when he got back his journey he could help him catch a Ralts of his own so that Riku can have a Gallade. Of course...his older brother never got to fulfill that promise...and he thought he could never get a Ralts anymore...until now.

"But it's strange...a Ralts' egg should have looked different than the one this little guy hatched from...that's why I thought he would be a new pokémon species. I guess I was wrong...." Rowan carefully examined him again. He looked like he was thinking even deeper now...Riku really wanted to know what he thought. Maybe it's something important. But...he could never be too sure.

"Anyway..." Kiyoshi suddenly piped up. "Shouldn't you pick your first pokémon now?"

"Ah! I totally forgot about it!" he slapped his head. He looked out the window. The sky was already light orange. He couldn't start his adventure now...it's too late. He would have to wait until tomorrow....Riku sighed. He would never have thought his first day would ever end this way....and plus, the reason why he got up so early in the morning was...

"Riku would not be going anywhere." Riku's grandma said firmly. "I already forbade him to not to get his first pokémon! I thought I already told you that Rowan!" she looked really angry now. Riku sighed again. The reason was that his grandma would never let him travel ever. He thought of sneaking out but...bad luck was looming over him today...

"I'm sorry Harada. But Riku..." he looked at the young boy. His eyes became serious as he remembered a far memory. This happened before, three years ago. A young boy was about to start his adventure as well then his grandma tried to stop him from leaving. But he was a persistent boy, and soon was finally allowed to travel. But that ended in disastrous results...he shook his head.

"Senri was such a skilled trainer...but I didn't think that would have happened to him. Especially at that time, of all times..." Rowan murmured. "I can understand why you wouldn't allow Riku to go but...shouldn't you at least give him a chance? After all..." he stared at Riku again. "He_ is_ Senri's younger brother."


	9. Chapter 8: Partner Pokemon

Chapter 8 - Partner Pokémon

"Even if Senri-chan was very good in pokémon battles, it doesn't give a reason as to why Riku-chan should go." Riku's grandma said firmly. "He's not going anywhere and that's that."

"G-grandma..." Riku knew how hard it was to change her mind. If it took really long just to get her to let Senri go, then how is he going to get him to go too?

"Hm..." Rowan looked deep in thought. "For the meantime...you should go home first Riku. We'll make the decision tomorrow."

"Alright...." he couldn't argue with that. It really was late anyways..."But...can I bring Akira along?"

"Akira? Who's that?"

Riku gently picked up the sleeping Ralts. "Him of course!" Rowan suddenly had a serious look in his eyes. "You're choosing him as your starter pokémon?"

"I-is there a problem with that?"

"Well first of all, we're not even sure if you could go on your journey and second..." he paused. "I want to study that pokémon more carefully...it hatched from an egg that was somehow unusual..."

"Please Professor? I really want Akira to be my partner!" Riku noticed the small pokémon waking up. He smiled as the Ralts opened his eyes and looked at him.

"You're awake..." Riku said softly.

"Who...are you?" the Ralts replied.

"D-did you just....!"

"It spoke!" Rowan looked amazed. But then calmed down again as if realizing something. "Oh...I forgot that Ralts are Psychic type pokémon. But it's quite amazing that it's can do telepathy when it just hatched." Riku thought that Rowan sounded disappointed. But he wasn't so sure about it....

"Who are you?" Akira repeated. Riku looked at him and smiled lightly.

"My name is Riku. And yours is Akira."

"Ri-ku? A-ki-ra?"

"Yeah. Mine is Riku and yours is Akira."

"Riku...trainer?"

"Eh? Trainer?" he didn't expect Akira to say that. "Well...yeah. I'm your trainer."

Akira smiled. "That's good." he murmured. Only Riku heard what Akira said, but he didn't repeat it. He just smiled back as if he knew what he meant.

"Well that wraps up this problem right Professor?" Kiyoshi suddenly said. "Riku finally chose his starter pokémon!" Rowan looked like he wanted to argue, but he decided that he would keep quiet. He couldn't take it away from him now. After all, maybe this is for the best...for the both of them.

"Yeah...it's for the best." Rowan thought. "So Riku--"

"Kiyoshi! Akira is not Riku's starter pokémon because he's not leaving at all!" Riku's grandma shouted.

"This is getting nowhere Harada. We'll settle this tomorrow. Anyway it's already dark." she nodded her head and turned to Riku. "Time to go home Riku-chan." she noticed that Riku was still holding Akira and he stared at her as if asking _'Can he stay with us?'_

She sighed "Alright. But only tonight."

"Thanks grandma!" Riku said in a really happy and grateful tone. Riku's grandma walked out the automatic door with him (and Akira in his arms) behind her. As soon as they left, Rowan sighed again.

_'I hope this problem won't take as long...' _he thought. And Officer Jenny was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

"This...is your house?" Akira asked as he stared at the quite large, brown house.

"Yeah. It's quite big isn't it? It's because my grandparents lived here ever since they were kids...it's a pretty old house, but it's still home to me. And besides, the interior's normal looking anyway." Riku set Akira down and walked inside. Akira quickly followed after him, by teleporting of course.

"Wow..." he was surprised. Inside Riku's house, you could see in front of you a long, red carpet. To the left there are two light-brown couches and a small table in the middle. At the end of the corner, nearby the couch was an expensive-looking, exotic lamp. If you looked farther you could see the stairs with silver bars at each side. To the right were a large, royal-like dining table and a little bit further, the kitchen. Riku's grandma walked there immediately and told Riku and Akira that she'll be making dinner first. Riku decided to show Akira the rest of the house while they were waiting.

"So where are we going Riku?" Akira couldn't help but ask. He was leading him to a long hall with a few doors that were some locked others just empty. Riku continued to walk along it until he reached a door. He turned the knob and stepped in.

"W-where are we?"

"This...is kinda like my backyard." Akira stared at the scenery. It was night time already so the stars were really bright up in the sky. They were standing in front of a large field, with different kinds of pokémon getting ready to sleep already. He couldn't recognize any of them at all for he really hasn't seen any other pokémon besides himself.

"Riku...what kind of pokémon is that?" Akira was pointing at the small group of pokémon nearby the tree. They were kinda small and it looked like a weed.

"That's an Oddish Akira."

"How about that one?" he pointed at another group nearby the Oddish. They're a lot bigger than the small Oddish, and way bigger than himself of course. Its body was brown and stood on two legs with a tail with two spikes at its back. It had a black helmet on top of its head and it had a pouch on its belly. There Akira spotted something small sleeping in it too.

"Those are Kangaskhan." there were many other pokémon that Akira saw, and Riku easily identified each pokémon. Akira was amazed by all the different pokémon. And Riku said these were only a few kinds compared to how many there really are in the world.

"I never thought you would be into these kinds of things Akira. To think that you're a pokémon yourself!" he said smiling.

Akira smiled back but then his mind suddenly filled with questions. "Why do I want to know anyway? It's kinda strange..." he looked again at the nice scenery again. "What...is this feeling anyway?" he thought.

"Riku! You're here!" a voice came out. Riku easily knew who it was while Akira was wondering where it came from. Soon, he finally saw him. An old man, who was nearby the sleeping pokémon, was waving at the both of them. Before he knew it, Riku quickly picked Akira up and ran down the hill to him.

"Since when did you get here Riku?" he asked. He looked like a nice person.

"Just a couple of minutes ago grandpa."

"Really now..." he noticed Akira and smiled. "So this is your partner eh?"

"W-well...possibly only today if grandma doesn't allow me to--"

"Go on your journey huh? You left early this morning because you knew that she would never allow you to go." as always, grandpa got it right. "Remember Riku, this day isn't just the day you get your first pokémon, it's your birthday too. Leaving early a while ago would have been heartbreaking for us if we just celebrated your birthday without its celebrant...right Riku? And then we have to waste that delicious cake for nothing."

Grandpa always found the right way to get Riku to feel guilty and realize his mistake. It annoyed him, but he knew that he was right. He nodded to him with a sigh "I guess so..." was all that Riku said. Akira easily noticed the sudden change in the air. "What's wrong Riku?"

"A talking pokémon! Now you don't see that every day!" Riku's grandpa said with a hearty laugh while he pet Akira on the head.

"Everyone!!! It's time for dinner!!" Riku's grandma shouted. She was just by the door that Riku and Akira came out of a few minutes ago.

"We're coming!" they both shouted at the same time. "Wanna race Akira?" Riku suddenly said. "Huh? Race?"

"Yeah. But no cheating!" he walked a bit farther and got ready. "Come on!"

"O-okay..." Akira ran towards to where Riku was standing.

"Ready?"

"Um...I-i guess..."

"GO!" Riku started running as fast as he could to the large hill and Akira was closely behind him. "I never knew you could run so fast Akira!" Riku sped up a bit. "But I'm gonna win!"

"No you're not!" Akira suddenly stopped.

"Huh? What's he doing?!" Riku thought but he kept on running.

Akira was gathering energy then his whole body glowed light blue. Soon, Riku's body was glowing as well. "H-hey! Akira!" he was floating in the sky now. "A-akira! Put me down!!" he kept on rising higher and higher. "AKIRA!!" his body was thrown in the air, and then he fell on a large pokémon's belly.

"O-ouch..." Riku wondered what he landed on. Then he looked behind him. The pokémon was still sleeping, but Riku quickly jumped out of his body as fast as he could. "S-sorry Snorlax! I-i didn't mean to land on you..." he said. He looked at the top of the hill, where his house was...and the finish line. And saw Akira beside his grandma. Even though he was quite far away he knew that Akira was smiling.

"I win!!" he shouted.

"Hey you cheated Akira!!" Riku shouted back. "That didn't count!!!" he ran up the hill again to finish the race and eat his dinner.

"Just like old times..." Riku's grandpa said and followed Riku to his home.


	10. Chapter 9: Tonight's Celebration

Chapter 9 - Tonight's Celebration

"It's delicious grandma!" Riku said in delight as he ate his dinner. They were all at the table inside the house. With the exception of Akira of course because Riku's grandma told him to stay on the floor. Riku argued about it a while ago, but Akira told him it was pointless anyway. So...Riku lost, and now Akira's eating pokémon food with a green bowl on the floor.

"I'm glad you like it Riku-chan. I made it especially for you~" she looked really happy. Riku looked at his grandpa and remembered what he said.

"Hey grandma?" his voice grew soft.

"Yes? What is it?"

"...Sorry for trying to leave early this morning. I-i wasn't thinking about...what you might have felt and..." he stood up. "I-i'm really sorry!" he said while bowing.

There was a small pause in the room. Akira looked at Riku, surprised by the sudden outburst. And Riku's grandpa smiled at him.

Suddenly Riku's grandma stood up and went to the refrigerator nearby. Riku and Akira wondered what she was getting while

Riku's grandpa didn't look surprised at all.

She turned around and faced all of them. In her hands was a large cake! It looked as large as Akira lying down and it was light-blue with lots of white icing. It had ten candles that were all light green in color. And in the middle of the cake was a large...poke ball! There was also a text in script saying 'Happy Birthday!' made of icing on top of the poke ball.

"W-wow..." Akira looked amazed. And it was the same for Riku. They both stared at the large cake in front of them.

"Happy Birthday Riku-chan~" she said with a blissful face.

"T-this...this is my birthday cake..?" Riku was silent. Then he jumped. "It's awesome grandma!! Thanks a lot!!" he ran towards her and hugged her. "This is one of your best birthday cakes yet!"

"I'm really glad you like it~!" she hugged him back tightly.

"Well, we better eat it now then!" Riku's grandpa said.

"Can I have some?" Akira looked at the cake.

"Of course Akira! I mean why wouldn't you?" Riku went back to his chair and quickly finished his dinner. "Riku-chan! Don't eat so fast!" she scolded but she smiled. She was happy that Riku was here. If he left...

She quickly pushed that thought away...and continued to grin at Riku fighting over the first slice with Akira.

"Mmm...I'm stuffed..." Akira looked really contented. Riku and Akira finished the whole cake a while ago. Riku's grandparents each took a slice but Riku and Akira enjoyed the cake so much that they kept on fighting over the pieces. And in the end, Akira got one piece more than he did. With the help of Confusion of course.

"I really wanted that last slice of cake..." Riku mumbled. Both of them were already in Riku's room. Riku's grandma told them to sleep already, but they didn't really feel sleepy even though it was late. They both thought that it was the cake. "Anyway Akira, when did you know Confusion anyway?"

"Confusion? What are you talking about?"

"The attack you used twice a while ago! You remember don't you? The first time was in the race...oh yeah that still didn't count..."

"But I won right?"

"I said no cheating at that time!" he sighed. Then he continued to what he was saying. "The second time was when you picked up the cake and ate it...man, now I feel hungry again...."

"That was an attack?"

"Yeah. You never noticed?"

"No...I just thought about something, then I do what you just said...Confusion...right?"

"Yeah that's right..." Riku yawned. "Now I feel sleepy." he went to his bed and lied down. Akira went after him and teleported on the bed.

Riku flicked the switch nearby and got under the blanket. Akira lied down beside him and went under the blanket as well.

"Night Akira." Riku said softly. It was clear that he was really exhausted now. After all it's been one long day.

"...night Riku." and soon they both fell soundly asleep. They didn't notice that Riku's grandma was nearby the slightly open door. She smiled lightly and went back downstairs.

_"...so...that's the boy Kurai-sama's after huh..."_

* * *

Yes. I noticed it was quite short. But I didn't really know what to write much...and besides, it's long test week. :(


	11. Chapter 10: Mornings

Merry Christmas everyone! I know, it's about two weeks already. And it's kinda short too. But anyway, at least I did it, right..?

* * *

Chapter 10 - Mornings

".....yawn~....it's morning...."

"... are you awake Riku?" Akira looked at the person beside him. He was sleeping peacefully, and Akira smiled at him. "Better not disturb him then..." he thought. If he did Teleport then it might startle him. So as quietly as he could, he slowly went down the bed.

"...Big brother..." Akira was surprised. Did he wake him up..? He turned around and sighed. Riku was just sleep-talking...that's all.

He always wondered about him..."What happened to Senri anyway..?" he thought at the back of his mind. Everyone tried to avoid it yesterday. They never really said anything about it. The only thing he knows is that he must have been a very nice person and he was a skilled pokémon trainer. What did they say..? Something about that he disappeared....

Akira walked to the door and used Confusion to turn the doorknob. He had better control of it now...maybe because he just hatched yesterday and didn't had much control at the time. He didn't really care much about it and went downstairs.

It was quite early since the sun was just rising above the hills outside. He expected the room to be empty, but he was wrong. He smelled something...food. Someone's cooking something, and it smells delicious..! He followed the smell to the kitchen...

"You're awake already?" a voice went. It was Riku's grandma. She was cooking some eggs on the pan.

"Y-yeah...I did sleep a lot yesterday..." he paused. "O-oh...I'm sorry for disturbing you Mrs. Harada..."

"You learned my name already?" she looked amazed and bewildered.

"I-i overheard the professor using it so..."

"You're a smart pokémon aren't you? You almost remind me of Senri-chan...." she fell silent after that. Akira knew that it was wrong but it felt like the perfect time to ask.

"What...happened to Riku's brother?" she continued to cook the eggs quietly.

"Please tell me. I really want to know. Riku's always so troubled because of...well whatever happened to him--"

"Two years ago." Akira stared at her. "He...disappeared...two years ago?" she nodded.

"Isn't it strange? Two years...it was only two years ago...and everything then was completely different." a small tear fell. Akira stood there...he wondered if it was right to even ask her that now.

"Akira?" he jumped in surprise. He looked behind him and saw it was Riku. "You could have woke me up you know." he said while yawning.

"S-sorry...it's just that you were sleeping so peacefully so I..."

"It's fine." he gave a big smile. "Don't worry about it Akira." he faced his grandma. "So what were you talking about?"

"U-um...nothing important." that's all she said. Akira wondered why she didn't say anything about Senri. But Riku looked like he didn't mind. "What's for breakfast?" he asked her.

"Eggs. And pancakes if you like. But I'm not done yet. Go outside for the meantime okay?"

"Alright." he turned to the hallway. "Come on Akira." he nodded and followed Riku. Soon it was just her in the kitchen.

Riku's grandma sighed. "Poor Riku-chan...I still can't talk to him about it...up to now...I still can't..."

* * *

"Ah~...it sure is windy today..." Riku was sitting on the grass along with Akira. The wind was pretty chilly and the skies were filled with clouds. Riku's hair was blowing gently as the cold breeze blew by. You could easily tell he was enjoying it.

"_*Achoo*_...it feels too cold for me..." Akira said while sneezing again.

"You don't like it Akira?"

"...I guess so..." he replied with another sneeze. "You're okay with it?"

"It doesn't come that often you know...it's the start of July."

"Right...*_Achoo_*" Riku stared at Akira with a small frown. "You better go back inside then or else you might end up catching a cold."

"What about you?"

"I'll just stay here a bit longer." Akira nodded and went back into the house. Riku sighed. He's alone again. Like it has always been before he ever knew Akira. Even when Senri was still around, he'd prefer to stay inside. He hated the cold, unlike himself.

"One of the many things that makes me different..." he laughed to himself, then sighed again. Senri was quite famous when he was a pokémon trainer. Of course making him a bit famous as well. Everyone besides his grandparents thought that he also had a lot of potential to be as skilled as his brother. But they're not that similar...actually they are pretty different from each other.

"B-but I can't blame them...Big brother was skilled at almost everything...from arts to sports...but he hates cooking!" he grinned. He stared at the scenery. "I...really miss him..." he closed his eyes and lowered his head. "I-i wish...he never...disappeared..." he cried softly to himself.

"Oddish..?" Riku lifted his head. "...Oddish-odd..?" the small pokémon looked at him in worry.

"It's okay Oddish. Go back to your family." he pointed at the small group below the hill.

"Odd..." it hesitated, but it ran back to the group anyway. Riku made a small smile. "Well, I better go back in the house for breakfast." he stood up and walked back to the back door. But then, he thought he heard something. Loud. A poacher..? Riku looked behind him. It seemed like nobody was there.

"There are few places to hide around here...and the trees are pretty far...so...how did I hear something like that..?" the sound he heard a while ago was like something made a rustle in a tree, or bushes. But there aren't any bushes nearby. Only trees. Yet the sound was really clear. Like it was happening right in front of him.

"Could it be just my imagination..?" he paused for a moment. "Yeah...must be." he turned the knob and went inside.

_"...That was too close...I better be more careful from now on..."_


	12. Chapter 11: The spy

Chapter 11 - The spy

As soon as Riku left the hill, the whole place looked really...how do you say it? Serene?

..._Quiet_. Yeah that's the word...I think.

The pokémon weren't doing much, just lying down or some probably sleeping. Others may be enjoying the cool breeze or running around with their friends.

No one noticed anything unusual. No one noticed anything that made Riku nervous a few moments ago. They didn't bother much to look around. Maybe if they did, they might have noticed someone watching them...and the house. They might have seen the silhouette standing on the tree. Just a few meters from the pokémon. He was watching them. It was clear that he was waiting for something to happen.

A small burst of sunlight suddenly came behind the clouds. The silhouette can be seen clearly now. He looked a bit older than Riku, wearing a black shirt under his gray-ish dark blue vest while his pants were also dark like his shirt. Yet his eyes were green. Almost as jade-green as Riku's eyes, however they seemed...darker. A small breeze made his black hair look a bit messy. But it looked like he didn't care about it at all.

_*bzzz*_

"...Finally." was all he said. He held up his hand and was grasping some sort of small, oval-shaped machine. It looked pretty simple. Steel-gray all over it with a small circle in the middle. Soon, a small beam appeared from the circle and showed somebody standing there. Even with the small amount of sunlight, the person was really hard to make out. You can't even see what he's wearing.

"Nice to see you again." the person-who-was-spying-at-Riku said.

"Same to you." the other replied. "Your report?"

"Yes I know Kurai-sama." he questions why he has to wait so long to finish his job. All he had to was to check _him_ out. Nothing more. Which is why this is one of the reasons he hated the small communication device. The only way to report is if his master wishes for him to report. And that annoyed him.

"Any news Ren?" the other person asked in a really calm tone. Ren sighed and told him about what happened yesterday. Including about Riku's kidnapping and the egg hatching. After the story was over Kurai paused for a while.

"Either they're starting to catch up to us or that boy's just really unlucky." Ren's master said sounding slightly disturbed. He noticed that Ren wanted to say something else..."Is there something wrong Ren?" he asked.

"...I think that...he sensed me."

"What?" suddenly the calm tone disappeared and was replaced with anger and frustration. "Are you sure?"

"...Yes." Ren just stayed cool. "He might have noticed my presence...but it looked like he didn't mind it."

"At least he didn't investigate it..." Kurai managed to say. His voice grew tense now. "But if you're right..." his calm tone returned. "Maybe we can execute our plan earlier than scheduled..."

"But Kurai-sama...he won't be staying here for long. I overheard something about going on a journey--"

"Ah well...We'll just wait and see now shall we Ren? Keep a good eye on them. I'm counting on you."

Ren nodded. "Of course." and then the small beam disappeared. He placed the small machine back at his pocket and stared at the house again.

A small tear escaped from his eye. He quickly wiped it off with the back of his hand and shook his head. "Why...why do I always cry when I go here..?" he asked himself. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind and focused on what he was supposed to do.

"To serve under orders from Kurai-sama. That's what I've been created for. And nothing, _nothing_ is going to change that." he said firmly.

* * *

Stephy : If you're wondering why I'm here, I got bored. I think you were expecting a longer chapter, but...I wanted to talk about him first! I can't help it...and if you're having some crazy ideas about the last sentence...I'll say one thing. He isn't...who you might think he is...(wait that could almost mean anything. Oh well.) I just finished reading 'The Sea of Monsters' eh...you know, the sequel to the 'Lighting Theif'? Took me 5 straight hours to finish...haha...yeah. So just wait for the next chapter. And Happy New Year! (school's coming soon...O_o)


	13. Chapter 12: Decisions

I've decided to say 'MrsHarada' instead of 'Riku's grandma'. It just felt like a mouthful so it's different in this chapter. Oh and in case you were wondering it's the same for his grandpa too.

* * *

Chapter 12 - Decisions

"There you are Riku-chan!" MrsHarada was looking at him when he appeared in the dining room. Akira was trying to help her out in the kitchen. How? Well...Confusion and Teleport were most of the moves he used. Got the picture? Good.

"When have you started helping grandma Akira?" Riku asked him while grinning at the fact he was wearing some kind of pink bandanna. "W-where did you get that piece of cloth..?" he was trying to stop himself from giggling.

" MrsHarada gave it to me. She said that it looks cute on me--"

"Since when did you call her 'MrsHarada'..?" he kept on giggling about the bandanna...and the fact that Akira was being so polite.

"Riku-chan. Stop asking questions and help us out." MrsHarada was handing him a light blue apron and was gesturing him to go there.

"But why..?" he said in a whiny tone.

"If you keep disturbing Akira then you better help us out."

"Fine...I'll keep quiet." he looked at Akira. "Talk to you later buddy." he dashed back to his room and closed the door shut.

"...What's wrong with Riku?" Akira asked while holding a white plate with the help of Confusion.

"He just hates chores that's all." she chuckled to herself. "And wearing things he considers not for boys." she clutched the apron. "If only Senri were here..." she mumbled.

"What about Senri?" she was surprised Akira heard it. "Does he like chores?"

"Not really...but he wouldn't complain about them. In fact...this is his apron." she placed the apron on the rack. "He didn't like them that much, but he would always ask if I needed help in anything. Unlike Riku-chan who's so lazy--"

"You just can't say that about him!" Akira suddenly blurted out; causing the plate he was holding to fall on the floor and break. MrsHarada was stunned by his outburst. "Ah..." Akira stared at the broken pieces. "I-i'm so sorry...I-i just...I don't know why but...I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay Akira. It's not the first time we had a broken plate." she got a broom and a dustpan and swept the pieces, she threw them in the trash can afterward. "But...I'm surprised how you reacted...really..."

"I-i didn't mean to--"

"You know what's odd? I said the same thing to Senri-chan before and he also said the same thing...about Riku-chan...he hates people who talk about him that way...I guess it's because he really loves his brother so much..."

"MrsHarada..."

"...I'm alright...I...trust you Akira."

"Trust..? With what?"

"I trust that you can protect him. On your journey."

"You're letting him go?" he said in an astonished tone. "B-but I thought...what about what happened to Senri?" she shook her head and just smiled at him. "I think Riku-chan will be fine." she removed the bandanna on his head. "You better tell Riku-chan the good news then."

Akira smiled back at her and went upstairs.

...

"You mean it grandma?!" Riku was almost shouting in excitement. She nodded again. Riku was screaming in gratitude, and then he realized that his screams woke up his grandpa. He got Akira and went upstairs, soon coming down again with his light blue jacket and a small, green backpack.

"Hey if you're gonna leave for an adventure, at least eat breakfast first." MrHarada said as he slowly came downstairs. Riku did feel kinda hungry, so he calmed himself and went to the table.

He was so excited it looked like he finished his meal in seconds. Even though Akira didn't want to, he had to eat fast so that Riku wouldn't get mad at him. He checked everything in his backpack again so that he's all prepared. Then with a wave of his arm, he and Akira stepped out of the door and set out for their journey.

"Are you sure about this..? I mean you're not really putting all your trust on that small pokémon are you?" MrHarada said after they left.

"I'm sure. I have a feeling Akira could do it. There's something about that pokémon...that makes me feel that he can protect him. Like he's--" she didn't finish her sentence because the phone rang. She stood up from her seat and picked it up. "Hello?"

"It's Rowan. I just saw them passing through the lab. So you decided for him to go too." he said. "...You sure you won't regret it this time?"

"I won't. He'll be fine." she said calmly.

"You're sure positive about it. Is it because of Akira?"

"...You could say that." Rowan felt like she wouldn't say much more so he said that he had something else to do, then hung up afterward. placed the phone back and leaned on the frame of the door. She stared at the sky, the sun shining over the small clouds.

"I hope I won't regret it..." she murmured.

* * *

Stephy : I thought it wasn't short but it still was! That's annoying. Ah well, it depends on what you say not how many words you say it with. Hope you enjoy it because I had a hard time to think of what to say...especially for her. (Hate it it's the start of school already!)

Oh yes I'm sorry for the confusion about the missing words before. That's because the word gets erased when you put it as 'Mrs' then a period. So if you didn't get it and didn't read it yet sorry. So anyway I placed the missing words now but they don't have a period so they wont disappear. Sorry again for the inconvinience. (Yeah I don't know why about the last line of my note :P)


	14. Chapter 13: The forest at Route 202

Okay I'm really sorry it took so long but I had a hard time thinking of the plot for this chapter. Plus I have school poking me every now and then so...I'll try to update 14th chapter faster. Hey at least I reached a more than a thousand words.

Gah...how can I be so stupid? I actually mistook Route 203 for 202! I know it may seem like a small error but I've been playing Pokemon Diamond and Platinum for two years and I still made that amateur mistake? Sheesh!

* * *

Chapter 13 - The forest at Route 202

"Route 202...the way to Jublife city..." Riku and Akira were standing in front of the green sign pointing the horizon ahead of them. Behind them was Sandgem town and Riku did feel a little nervous. He's really never been to a large city before. But he didn't want to simply back down now. "Let's go Akira!"

"Right." they started to walk along the light-brown path. Surrounding them as they strode by were large fields of grass. There were barely any trees around at all...unless you count the forest far at the border.

"So do we have to pass that forest Riku?" Akira asked.

"Yeah. Why are you asking? Scared?"

"No. Just...asking." the conversation didn't go any farther than that as they approached it. Even if it was morning, being under the forest made the whole place a lot darker...Akira clung on to Riku as they continued to traverse the woods.

"...don't get the wrong idea okay? I'm not s-scared of this place at all..." he said while gripping Riku's pants with his small, white hands. Riku grinned. But his smile faded as he scanned the trees."...there's something strange in this forest. I can't sense any pokémon around here. It's like the whole place's atmosphere is really tense...." he thought of something at the back of his mind. "Could those poachers have something to do with it..?" *rustle*

They both quickly faced a small bush nearby them. Akira grew even more frightened as the rustling sounds increased and it looked like the pokémon went closer and closer until...

"Bi-doof?" a small pokémon walked out of the bush. It was brown and looked like a beaver because of its large, white teeth. But its tail was stubby. They were all silent and were staring at each other. After a few moments the Bidoof just went back in to where it came from.

"So we were scared of a Bidoof..?" Riku was slightly blushing from embarrassment.

"...yup." Akira replied.

"Let's just continue to walk okay?" Akira agreed and went on, trying to forget about that time.

The forest seemed to calm down after the encounter. Pokémon were now often scrambling around, some of them holding different kinds of berries. Yet the strange thing was...they were all Bidoof. Riku and Akira haven't seen a single Starly up in the sky or a single Shinx running around like the Bidoof. And since its morning, there should be at least one Kricketot playing a song. Not a single one of them were around except the small, plump pokémon. Riku's thought about the poachers returned. But why then all the Bidoof?

"This is really strange...if the poachers really had something to do with this, then why did they leave all the Bidoof alone..?" Riku thought aloud.

"Maybe they thought Bidoof weren't important." Akira suddenly replied. Instead some kind of shout about comparing pokémon because of their looks, Riku thought about it. "...I hate to say it but you might be right Akira." he sighed to himself. He didn't like saying that Bidoof are...what people normally think they are. It's annoying that many people judge pokémon by their looks. He hated that a lot. But that seems like the only answer they could think of for now...

"We might be able to figure out why if we ever run into those poachers again..." but that was the last thing he wanted. He didn't want yesterday to repeat itself. He was lucky to still be alive...thanks to Akira. But if ever another encounter would come...."I-i don't want to see them ever again!" he accidentally shouted.

"...Riku? Who are you thinking about?" Akira asked him with a concerned tone.

"O-oh...did I say that out loud?" Akira nodded. "...anyway...we can't stay here that long. Jublife City's supposed to be a walking distance so if we wanna get there by lunch then we better get going..."

"Okay then..."

* * *

Of course sooner or later a problem would arise wouldn't it? And the most common problem that could happen in the middle of the forest is...

"Okay. We're officially lost." Riku sat down at the roots of a tree as both of them decided to take a break from walking around in circles. "We must have lost the path after we crossed that group of Bidoof...."

"So how are we going to find the path back now?" Akira asked. *grumble* "Riku...I'm sorry to trouble you...but I'm hungry......"

"Don't worry. I have some emergency snacks and some pokémon food in my backpack." he placed it on the ground and took out a small can of pokémon food. Riku opened the lid and grabbed a few to give some to Akira.

"Thanks." they both ate as little food as they could manage. And after a few more pokémon food and snacks, they felt good enough to try finding the main path again. As they stood up they heard a loud cry. This time they didn't back down and ran to see what it was.

"Bu-neary!!" when they reached there, they found a tiny pokémon trapped in a net from a tree. It was a small brown bunny pokémon and it was struggling to get out of the tangled net.

"Stay here." Riku rushed to try to get the poor pokémon out, but then a large penguin pokémon appeared in front of him and used Water Gun. He didn't have enough time to dodge so he was blasted with the strong water attack and fell on the ground.

"Riku!" Akira went to him and was trying to help him out, but he told Akira he was fine and shakily stood up.

"Hey Empoleon! Did a pokémon get caught already?" someone shouted from afar. Soon a group of kids who were older than Riku showed up. One of them was really big and looked he was the leader. He had short, black hair and small black eyes. He wore a simple green shirt and orange shorts. The two other kids behind him were twins but one wore a light blue shirt and the other had a dark blue shirt. They both had the same brown eyes and they were all staring at Riku.

"What are you doing here wimp?" the leader grinned to himself.

"Don't call me a wimp Gouro." Riku replied with an annoyed tone.

"But you were always cowering behind your brother weren't you?" one of the twins said. "That's right! What's his name again..?" the other twin pretended to forget.

"His name was Senri. And I'm not afraid of you guys anymore because--"

"'cuz your brother's gone. You know I think the real reason he disappeared was because he was also a coward _just. Like. You_." they all laughed.

"He's not a coward!" Riku was seriously tempted to punch him right now.

"He is too!" they all said together. Then the group continued to laugh. Riku was fuming with rage. But then the Buneary stuck in the net was still there and trying to make small sounds, like it was asking him for help. He completely forgot about the pokémon. So as silently as he could, he quickly untangled the net and let it go. With a thankful cry, the Buneary vanished back into the woods.

"Hey you tricked us!" the twin with the light blue shirt said as he noticed their trap was destroyed. The group stopped laughing and now looked angry at him. Akira stepped forward and glared at Gouro.

"Oh your wimpy pokémon wants to battle huh?" Gouro called Empoleon. "I accept your challenge!" Empoleon looked really excited and took its battle stance.

"Akira, are you sure about this? You can't just think that it'll be easy to beat them. And plus, this is your first battle." Riku whispered to him.

"I'll be fine Riku. Just make sure that you do your part to keep me from fainting." he said with a smirk.

Riku stayed silent, and then closed his eyes. "...if you insist, then be my guest."


	15. Chapter 14: Against the Emperor

So it took me awhile to push this because of the error but I did it. I'm happy I did it before the long quizzes...phew! But I better start thinking of new ideas for the other story...haha....

* * *

Chapter 14 - Against the Emperor

The whole atmosphere began to tense up as the two pokémon were ready for the battle. If you stared at it from the side, you would say that the tiny Ralts would have no chance against the large confident Empoleon. You have to remember that this is Akira's first time battling compared to the penguin pokémon's experiences of days battling many other creatures probably twice more powerful than the puny human-shaped thing in front of him. But Akira has guts. You could say that much.

"O-kay! I'll be the judge for this battle!" the twin with the light blue shirt shouted joyfully. In the sidelines was his twin brother grumbling to himself. "I should have gone with scissors...." he mumbled.

"Our leader the famous Gouro will challenge the newbie wimp Riku!" Gouro sneered at him yet Riku made no comment about the title he was given. He couldn't lose control here. He's not like Senri in battles. He has to stay focused.

Everything for a few seconds was in silence. Then with a grin, the twin shot out the signal. "Begin!!"

Gouro was the first to give the command. "Empoleon use Ice beam!" the large bird jumped high in the air and began to form a bright, white ball from his beak. Then he shot out a large beam that was directly headed for Akira.

"Akira Teleport!" he used it in time to dodge the attack, leaving a small patch of grass turned into ice.

"Drill Peck!" now Empoleon dived into the direction his opponent was with his beak glowing brightly and growing bigger. Akira easily dodged the attack but the explosion caught him off guard for a few moments. Riku couldn't see anything and he hoped that it wasn't the same for Akira. Unfortunately, it looked like Gouro anticipated this and told Empoleon to use Blizzard on the whole battlefield.

"Akira!" A strong chilly wind suddenly blew behind Empoleon and froze the grass quickly. It felt like the temperature suddenly dropped down to a few degrees because Riku shivered a bit even after the attack subsided and you could see what was in front of you clearly.

The whole place was crystal white except for the trunk of the trees and everything above that. Riku's feet were already nearly touching the cold ground and so was Gouro's. But it looked like he didn't care about that. What he mostly thought about was his prized pokémon standing there......

"Where's your wimpy pokémon Riku? Don't tell me that's it?" everything was quiet. Akira wasn't seen anywhere. Riku just stood there, shocked. What happened?

"Akira?" he wasn't there...was he able to use Teleport before he got hit..?

"Aww come on! I know you're wimpy and that you are still a newbie but come on! That's it?" Gouro said with a whiney tone. "This was no fun at all. Come on guys, we're leaving." he gave a hand sign to get out of here. He searched for something in his belt and got a poké ball. "You too Empoleon....huh?" he quickly noticed that Empoleon was...floating. _In mid air_. Which of course is seriously weird. Empoleon's a penguin. And everyone knows that penguins don't fly. "What are you doing Empoleon? Get down here now!" but Empoleon had a surprised look on his face. Gouro can't see it? The blue thing shining around himself? Doesn't his own trainer realize he can't move?

Riku saw it immediately. A small smile spread through his face. _Akira_. He must be using Confusion. But he hardly expected for a psychic type move to be this effective against the steel bird. It didn't matter for him now. Riku was enjoying Gouro's confused and annoyed face. For some reason he can't see the psychic energy surrounding Empoleon. Riku now remembered that he has eye problems. His brother did tell him once a random fact that Gouro needed glasses ever since he was little. But refused to wear it because it made his look like a dork. After learning that, he was able to escape Gouro's bullying more often. He chuckled to himself at the memories of his confused face.

Well sadly, he heard that. "What's so funny Riku?!" he snarled. "Is your wimpy pokémon doing this?!" Riku suddenly realized that he could have just used his poké ball and call him back even though he was up there. Why he's not doing it now he doesn't really know. "Two possibilities. One that he's really stupid and the other is that he's amazed that Empoleon's flying." Riku thought to himself. "Although I would bet more on the first one..."

Riku finally saw where Akira was hiding. Somehow he was able to get himself on a tree nearby before Blizzard hit him. Akira was still glowing light blue as he lifted Empoleon higher in the air. Empoleon cried loudly and tried to struggle, but the Confusion was powerful enough to keep him in place. Then, the blue light disappeared all of a sudden, leaving a large, flightless bird up in the sky. Uh oh....that's...not good.

With a loud cry, Empoleon was falling from the sky. And it hit the ground soon after. A big wave of dust came out that caused everyone to block their eyes. Then when the dust faded, all that was left there was Empoleon and a large hole under it. It must have been carried pretty high up since it was obvious that the emperor pokémon fainted.

"M...my Empoleon!" Gouro was speechless. He pointed his finger to Riku. "You...what have you done to my pokémon?!" it was then when Akira jumped out of the tree and went to Riku's side. "I used Confusion. Don't tell me an experienced trainer like you didn't notice that."

"T-the...pokémon...did it just..." Now the whole group was silent. Riku was laughing hysterically.

"S-stop it! Stop laughing at me!!" He looked like he was about to explode with anger. But he used his poke ball first to return Empoleon back. "Hmph. You're lucky Empoleon's badly hurt. If he wasn't I would have punched you right now..." he placed the poké ball back from his belt. "We'll settle this next time, with a real pokémon battle." he called for the twins and walked away.

Soon, it was only Riku and Akira in the icy surroundings.

"Good job Akira. I didn't expect you to pull of lifting Empoleon." the small psychic type pokémon smiled back at him. "It wasn't a big deal..."

"Of course it is. For a second there I thought you were gone..." he froze for a few seconds after that. Then as if he tried to erase it, he continued. "But you beat that large pokémon easily! It's like this wasn't your first battle at all!"

"R-really? Hehe..." Akira looked happy. "Um...Riku?"

"Yeah?" he noticed that Akira's smile from awhile ago was now replaced with a tired face. "Oh...okay I'll let you rest--Oh shoot!"

"What's wrong?"

"I forgot to get your poké ball from Professor Rowan's place! And the pokédex too! Oh man...I can't believe I forgot that!" Riku sighed. "Well since we're still lost, we don't even know the way back to Sandgem. And it would be so embarrassing to come back after grandma allowed me to go..."

Suddenly a pokémon came out of the bushes. "Buneary!" the pokémon happily jumped on Riku, which made him fall on the ground. He groaned over the pain, but he gave a small smile to the bunny. "Nice to see you again..." he managed to say while still whining to himself from the fall.

"Bun-bun!" it seemed really happy. Akira was happy too for some reason. Then he approached the two. "Buneary?" the pokémon got off Riku and went towards the other pokémon. "Do you know a place called Jublife city?" it looked like that the bunny nodded. "Well you see we got lost trying to find our way there. Can you help us?" Buneary made a loud cry. It looked like it agreed. "Thanks Buneary." Akira went to Riku who was still on the grass. "Well you better get up. Buneary's going to show us the way." he said with a smirk. Riku questioned how Akira could easily taking control of the situation and the fact that he didn't looked tired anymore. Was it something about Professor Rowan said? That Akira was..._different_?

Well Riku didn't focus on that much now because it appeared that Akira and Buneary were about to leave him behind.

"H-hey! Wait for me!" he called out to them while quickly standing up. He ran to them and of course easily caught up with them. The two pokémon both laughed at him as Riku got mad and annoyed about him being left behind.

So with that, the three of them set out again to Jublife city.


	16. Chapter 15: City Life

Yes I lied. I was able to post this chapter and pretty much typed it around a day. I'm actually posting in like...10:30pm our time so...I'll wrap up this author's note quick so that I can go to sleep. Yeah you might be wondering that I could post this tomorrow but why keep you waiting? See, I'm a good person. _*big grin*_

Oh yeah, I never said anything about it before, because I thought it didn't need to be said. But ah well, you can't be too sure abut everything right?

**Disclaimer : I do not own pokemon at all. I only own my best friend Riku, and all my friends that I have created.**

There I said it. So don't catch me saying it again.

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Chapter 15 - City Life

They have been walking around the forest for quite some time (for Riku anyway,) but finally, they reached an open clearing on a hill. Farther down was a bustling city. Yup, that's Jublife alright.

"Thanks for the help Buneary. We couldn't have gotten out there without you." the Buneary seemed to say 'no problem!' in response. Riku was expecting the pokémon to turn around and leave, but it just stood there, staring at the trainer.

"Um...you can go back now Buneary." Riku said. The small creature had a confused expression on its face. "You have to go back to the forest don't you?" it seemed the questions just made it more stumped. But soon as it realized what Riku meant, it showed him a really...sad and lonely expression.

"D-don't you have a family?" it shook its head.

"So you want to stay with us?" that made the Buneary's eyes sparkle.

"But I can't keep you..." now it made a pleading expression.

"Buneary..." Riku sighed at how hard it is to communicate with a pokémon. He stared at his partner, Akira. Riku's face read _'Um...help please?'_ but Akira replied with a _'You don't need help from me'_ look. Riku sighed again. "...fine you can come with us" Buneary made a happy cry and jumped on top of Riku. "...please get off me." the pokémon quickly followed the command.

"Now come on. Let's go to Jublife already." the sky was already getting darker. The sun was setting with the colors of yellow, orange and red. The clouds seemed to have absorbed the color, turning into shades of dark blue, orange, purple and red...

* * *

After a couple more minutes of walking, they finally were on the border of the city. You could see all kinds of people walking around; some have pokémon, some kids, a few with briefcases and others.

"So this is what Jublife looks like..." Riku couldn't help but feel amazed by the whole busy atmosphere. It's completely different from Sandgem town. Riku then noticed a piece of wood sticking out in front of the building. The three went towards it to get a better look.

_Welcome to Jublife! The city of Joy!_

Under that was a not so detailed map of the city. Riku easily identified the symbol for Pokémon Center, and the Poké market as well.

"We better go to the Pokémon Center. At least there we can eat up and stay for the night." he said to the two pokémon. When Riku was about to turn, a hand suddenly appeared and grabbed Riku's shoulder.

"W-what the--?!" he faced the person who grabbed him, and saw it was just Kiyoshi.

"Kiyoshi! What are you doing here?" the assistant looked worn out, his hair with a number of twigs and leaves.

"Riku...*_pant_*...I'm so happy...*_wheeze_* that I was able to find you!" he regained a little strength and got something from his pocket. "Here you go. You forgot these when you dashed into the woods." Kiyoshi gave him five balls and a small red machine.

"A pokédex! And poké balls too! Thanks Kiyoshi!" Riku got the items and placed them in his bag for the time being. He'll organize them later on.

"N-no problem......" then surprisingly, he collapsed on the ground.

"H-hey! Are you okay?! Kiyoshi!" the young trainer flipped him and found him...snoring. He sighed in relief and carried him with his arm on his own shoulder. "How many times am I going to do this..?" Riku thought to himself.

* * *

Soon, Riku, Akira, Mimi (Buneary's new nickname), and the unconscious Kiyoshi were in front of the quite large building with the sign of a big poke ball on it. And the small glass (or what seemed like glass) sign which read 'Pokémon Center'. They all stepped in through the automatic door. The place seemed pretty deserted...there was only a few trainers around and at the far back behind the counter, a woman with a nurse outfit. She had pink hair and red-brown eyes. She had a gentle smile on her face, but she looked like she wasn't busy.

"Nurse Joy!" she was a bit surprised that her name was called out of the blue because she almost looked like she jumped.

"Y-yes..? What can I--" she noticed Riku carrying Kiyoshi. "Oh my goodness! W-what happened to him?! Is he okay?!" Riku stared at her blankly, titled his head to Kiyoshi then back to Nurse Joy. "Yeah don't worry he's fine." he said it like it's normal for him to be carrying the assistant.

"Are you sure..? What if he's hurt?"

"Nah don't worry. He's always like this." that just seemed to make Nurse Joy even more worried. Despite that, she let it slide, because upon closer examination on Kiyoshi's face, it was really clear that he was sleeping, with a few...snores sometimes.

"So to my guess you want to stay here for the evening right?" Riku nodded. "Are you going to heal your pokémon?"

"Ah...I guess so."

"Okay, just return them to their poké balls and--"

"Oh yeah!!" Nurse Joy was shocked by Riku's outburst. "...I forgot I never tried to put them in the poké ball yet..."

"You don't need to worry about Akira for that." Riku nearly screamed in fright as he dropped the now awake Kiyoshi on the floor. "Ouch!!"

"S-sorry...but you really surprised me you know..."

"Anyway..." Kiyoshi stood up shakily and made a small smile, as if trying to convince them that he was okay. Well, he didn't do a really good job at that. "Akira already has his own poké ball. The professor did something to Akira when he was an egg to be attached to one of your poké balls in your bag."

"Really?" Riku didn't get a chance to take a look so he searched for the red and white spheres until he grabbed one which had a different marking on it. The poké ball had the same color as the others except it had green slash marks on both sides. "Isn't this...wait what is this exactly?"

"It's a poké ball. Though it was designed with some special markings by some artist...I think."

"So what's so special about it?"

"...that I don't know."

"Kiyoshi!"

"He didn't tell me anything!"

"Riku..."

"What Akira?!"

"I'm hungry..." at that point, Riku's stomach began to grumble as well. He never realized how hungry he was, and he almost forgot that he skipped lunch...

"...Nurse Joy?"

"Yes?"

"Where's the cafeteria?" she pointed at a hallway to the right. "Just follow this hallway and soon you'll get to a large room. That's it."

"Okay, let's skip the argument for now; I need to eat something so that I won't faint from hunger already." Akira quickly agreed to it, while Mimi just nodded with a small smile on its face. Kiyoshi was happy he didn't have to fight or anything. So all of them (except Nurse Joy) went to the cafeteria.

* * *

After a hearty dinner Nurse Joy showed them their rooms. Riku wanted to ask more about the poke ball but Kiyoshi had to leave because the professor might need him. When he left, the young trainer tried the poké ball on Akira to see if it worked. And, the assistant wasn't lying. It functioned like it was a normal poké ball. "Well at least I won't have a hard time knowing which is Akira's..." he thought.

In Mimi's case, Riku decided since it's getting late, he would try to catch Mimi tomorrow. He knows that it's unfair to give a pokémon a nickname even though he hasn't caught it yet, but I guess that's what you call confidence. Sort of.

It's still quite early, but the whole day has been pretty tiring. Getting lost in the forest for hours, their first battle against Gouro, finding the city thanks to Mimi, and everything else. It's only the second day and already it feels like a huge adventure on its own.

"I'm going to be like this every day from now on huh?" Riku thought. He was lying down on his bed. Akira was beside him (again) on the left, and now Mimi (she didn't want to sleep alone) on the right. Both of them were already sound asleep.

"...It feels crowded." he thought. He was never used to sleeping with someone. Senri and he always had their own bed. But...sometimes when Riku got afraid, he might crawl onto Senri's bed for a while and sleep with him...whenever he was with his older brother, it felt like all his fears would go away...

"Big brother..." Riku stared at the dark ceiling. "...I need to sleep. G' night Akira, Mimi..." he closed his eyes. "Night Big brother..." he murmured, and then he fell asleep too with the pokémon.


	17. Chapter 16: Early Dawn

I am so sorry about the short chapter. It's less than a thousand words!..._*sigh*..._anyway, I promise the next one's gonna be longer...I think. So please enjoy! And will it kill you just to say 'great story'? I actually want more reviews to tell you the truth..._*whimper*_...I welcome criticism too of course.

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Chapter 16 - Early Dawn

It was still barely dawn when Riku rubbed his eyes for a moment and sat up. It was a dream as he remembered. But as dreams are as cruel as they were, they seem to always go away from you as soon as you snap back to reality. He can recall vaguely about something important...

"Oh yeah...I haven't tried my pokédex yet..." he said sleepily. He reached out for the small red machine on the desk nearby and opened it. The screen lit up quickly and displayed a menu on the upper panel. Riku scrolled on to one of the options that labeled 'Scan' and pressed a button. Suddenly the screen turned white and a single message flashed on it.

_Point to a Pokémon to scan_

The young trainer did as told and moved his arm so the machine would face Akira. The screen showed a spiraling poke ball, indicating that it was processing something. Soon, all kinds of data popped up on the top and bottom panels. The higher one displayed basic information about the pokémon like type, weight, height, a small description, and even a picture. On the lower screen it displayed a list of moves that Akira could currently use. Riku studied it carefully, then after memorizing them, he proceeded to Mimi, but the pokédex only showed the usual basic info.

"Too bad...well if they did allow the moves to be shown, then that would be cheating would it?" after closing the pokédex, Riku decided to walk around a bit. The brown-haired boy slowly got out of the blanket, trying his best not to wake up the two pokémon. When that was done, he reached out for his sky-blue jacket and went out of the room. Unlike in Professor Rowan's lab, there was a map in front of him as soon as he stepped out. Riku felt grateful to whoever placed it there...or else he would have gotten lost somewhere again...

Riku found the lobby on the map with ease. Using his finger, he traced out the route he had to take. The Pokémon Center wasn't big, so after a few seconds he ran to the left and did all the turns that were needed. Before long, he was at the large room. The whole place was completely empty.

"Seems like no one's awake..." even Nurse Joy wasn't at the counter, or so he thought until he heard soft, snoring noises coming from it. "Is it alright for her to be sleeping there..?" he wondered.

There wasn't much to do in the Pokémon Center, so he decided to go out instead. He went past the automatic doors and embraced the fresh air. Even though Jublife was one of the most technologically advance cities in the Sinnoh region, in the morning the breeze could feel somewhat like the countryside...probably because there seemed to be no one in sight.

The trainer started to walk around the city. In truth, the whole city didn't feel as big if the whole place was nearly deserted. Once in a while he would see a running jogger doing their usual morning routine, which was probably...running. Without the crowds, he could see the towering buildings clearer now. He passed by the poke mart, he'll gather some supplies there later. There wasn't much to sightsee because of all the tall skyscrapers--

_*thud*_

"Oww..." Riku tripped over something while he was gazing at all the buildings. Falling on his stomach, he slowly stood up. The kid wasn't hurt that badly, but he was still wincing at the pain. Riku wasn't really sure what he tripped over, but it was pretty big...

"Uuuuu......." Riku was shocked to see that he stumbled on a person. He was a teenage boy with spiky, flame colored hair. His clothes consist of a forest green vest and an orange shirt and navy blue pants. The guy was groaning about something...but Riku couldn't really make out what he was saying.

"A-are you okay?" he asked him. Only one word was clear to him. _"...food..."_

The trainer sweat dropped and decided to bring him to the Pokémon Center. At least he won't die of hunger...and he somehow looks familiar...

* * *

With a slight amount of difficulty, Riku was able to carry the teen with one of his arms on his shoulder. Thankfully they weren't that far from the building and got there before Riku could have collapsed over the weight of the guy. He was really heavy!

"Nurse Joy!" Riku was happy that the young nurse was awake and already started to work.

"Good morning Riku--" she noticed the person the trainer was carrying. "Another injured person..?" she said with worry yet it sounded calmer. Well it did happen yesterday too...talk about déjà vu.

"Not really. He's starving though..." as soon as he said that, the teen groaned again.

"Oh, well let's bring him to the cafeteria shall we? I'll carry him for you Riku, you yourself seem pretty tired..." the nurse went out of the counter and told a nearby Chansey to set up some food for him. The pink and white nurse pokémon gave a small cry and ran to the hallway.

"No, it's fine." she lifted the teen's body on her back, like giving him a piggyback ride, and gave a smile at the trainer. "You should check on your pokemon Riku. They seem a bit worried about you."

"A-alright. Thanks for your help Nurse Joy." he sped to his room after doing a small bow.

"Okay...let's make you feel better shall we?" she whispered to him. The guy groaned again, but this time Nurse Joy could make out one thing.

_"Riku..." _


	18. Chapter 17: An old friend comes back

A.N.: Finally, I was able to update this story before the month ended. Sorry for being so lazy...I'll try to think of something as quick as possible. Anyway, enjoy the story! And please R&R! I was able to make this chapter longer thankfully...

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Chapter 17 - An old friend comes back

"Riku you're back!" when the trainer opened the door to the room, he was greeted with two pokémon tackling him, making all of them fall on the floor. "Where did you go?! When Mimi and I woke up, you were gone..!" Akira yelled. "Bun-Buneary!" Mimi cried in agreement. Riku stared at them for a moment, and then sighed.

"First of all, can you get off me?" the two pokémon looked at each other and jumped off his chest. "Thanks." he sat up and rubbed his head, wincing at the slight pain when he touched it. Mimi made an apologetic face to him.

"It's okay. Anyway it was my fault to make you worry like that." he turned to Akira, who still seemed a little restless. "Sorry...I didn't think you would be concerned about me going out for a while..."

"Of course we would be concerned! Going away like that...I could see why Mrs. Harada never wanted you to leave..." that last statement hit Riku like a bullet. He never meant to worry them...wait how long was he gone anyway? "Mimi kept on pleading me to search for you...I told her that it would be dangerous, but..." Akira glanced at Mimi, and then shivered a bit. "She threatened that she would do an Ice Beam on me..."

Riku stared at his pokémon in disbelief. "_Ice Beam_..? Really Akira, what if she's just..." that's when Riku noticed that part of the bed they slept on a few hours ago had been frozen solid. "What the..."

"Mimi did that." Akira cut in before the trainer could have asked. All that Riku do was gape at the attack.

"Riku?" suddenly Nurse Joy was standing behind the three of them. "Um...what are you doing on the floor..?"

"O-oh...it's nothing you need to worry about Nurse Joy." he said with a smile. "Is there something wrong?"

"It's the person you brought in..." Akira and Mimi exchanged confused looks. "Person..? What are you talking about Riku?"

"Well, if you didn't ambush me earlier I would have explained to you the events awhile ago." the psychic pokémon made a regretful face. "Sorry..."

"It's okay. Anyway so what's the problem?"

"He wants to talk to you." that surprised the trainer slightly. "He's awake already?"

"He was conscious to begin with, and he's eating heartily right now at the cafeteria." the nurse sighed. "I have never seen someone so hungry in my entire life...and that includes pokémon. He's eating like he's a _Snorlax_!" the trainer couldn't help but laugh at the comment. Riku slowly got up from where he was sitting with Akira and Mimi right beside him. "We better not keep him waiting then right?"

* * *

The nurse led them to the large room, and there they saw an impressive sight. Stacks of plates and bowls were piled up on a table, and they aren't clean. The group went closer to find a teen still munching away on the last plate there. After he was done he made a loud burp. "That was delicious..." he mumbled, feeling really bloated and full at the moment. His blue eyes seemed to gleam when he noticed the trainer standing nearby. "Riku! You're here!"

At that very second, the nagging feeling came to him again. That large appetite and that familiar voice..."_Takeshi_..?"

"Phew! Glad you still remember me kid!" he beamed. "For a second there I thought your forgetfulness would have overwhelmed you!" it's true, it almost did. Not that Riku would say anything about that. Memories flooded in his mind, and to that effect raised a question.

"What are you doing here Takeshi?" he asked. The red-head hesitated before answering. "Um...you brought me right?"

"I mean," he closed his eyes in a slight annoyance. "What are you doing here in Sinnoh?"

"Oh..." he started. "Well...um...visit?" the boy sighed. "The real reason?" Takeshi stayed silent. That's when he noticed the two pokémon. "Hey are those your pokémon Riku?" he asked, desperate to change the subject. He only saw them now since they were so quiet.

"Yeah thanks for ignoring us Riku and whoever you are." Akira mumbled while Mimi made a sad face to the same reason.

"Sorry 'bout that Akira. You too Mimi." Riku picked up the two pokémon and let them down on the table in front of Takeshi. The teen raised an eyebrow at the psychic pokémon. "A Ralts? Cool starter Riku, though as I recall these pokémon mostly appear in the Hoenn region. I heard they're pretty rare in Sinnoh."

"Hehe...consider it lucky...I guess." he said while rubbing the back of his head with his hand.

"So who are you anyway?" Akira asked. Takeshi smirked.

"I'm the renowned pokémon master of Hoenn, Fujita Takeshi!" he yelled proudly while standing. The whole group sweat dropped except for Riku, who actually was quite used to this when Takeshi would introduce himself to somebody. "He's an old and good friend of mine who lives in Rustboro City, and he used to visit our house when we we're little."

"We..?" the psychic pokémon asked.

"I mean my brother and I..." the trainer gave a small smile at his partner, signaling him to not push the subject. Akira silently nodded and faced Takeshi again.

"So what, that means you're a pokémon trainer too?" he asked.

"Of course! I even competed in the Hoenn League two years ago!" he exclaimed arrogantly. Akira deduced that he loved to boast, oh wait, you don't need to guess just to figure that out.

"But you lost in the semi-finals." Riku added. The teen glared at the boy menacingly. "Hmph, at least I didn't _flee_ from the Sinnoh league like your brother."

"He did not run away!" Riku scowled in anger. "Big brother wouldn't dare do such a thing!"

"One year is quite a lot of time to change you know Riku." he snapped back. Akira and Mimi wanted to end the argument between the two, but they didn't know what to do. The topic was getting really personal; one false word could spark something really bad among the two trainers...and themselves.

Riku tried his best not to scream in rage at his friend, yet his reasoning was making the boy wanting to knock some sense in him. Finally, after some more debates and a long silence, with tears in his eyes, Riku stormed out of the cafeteria, shutting the door while doing so. Now it was just Akira, Mimi, and Takeshi left in the room (Nurse Joy seemed to have gone somewhere after escorting the group to Takeshi).

"What kind of friend are you..? You knew that talking about Senri was going to upset Riku..." Akira started. Takeshi just hung his head low. "I...I guess I was furious at Senri for leaving us..." he covered his face with his hand. "I shouldn't have unleashed that anger on Riku..." the teen sighed. "He...had nothing to do with what happened to Senri..."

"Buneary...Bun-buneary." Mimi jumped off the table and bounced to the door.

"She said we better find Riku already." Akira translated, knowing that Takeshi wouldn't understand pokémon language. "I agree with her, you still have to apologize to him for what you said about Senri."

"Fine...but Jublife City is a big place, we may need Hiro to help us out."

"Who's Hiro?" Akira asked.

"My partner. You think that I would leave my best pokémon with Professor Birch?" Akira was about to ask who Professor Birch was, but he probably was the same like Professor Rowan so he didn't bother anymore.

Takeshi grabbed a poké ball from his belt and pressed the button. "Come on out Hiro!" the sphere opened and a white beam came out of it, turning into a form of something larger than Akira and Mimi, even Takeshi himself. After the light faded, a huge fire type pokémon took its place. It stood on its two legs and he had red feathers all over its body and yellow feathers stretching from its knee to his foot. The pokémon had a beak and its hands were three, gray claws.

Hiro yawned loudly, and then looked down at the two other pokémon. "Blaziken..?"

"Hiro, these are Riku's pokémon, Akira and Mimi." Takeshi answered his partner's question. The large fire bird nodded slowly then faced his trainer.

"Blazi-Blaziken...blazi-ken?"

"...um...Akira, translate?" Takeshi asked, he wanted to try to answer a pokémon's questions accurately, it seems pretty cool anyhow.

"Hiro asked where are we and why did you call him out." the psychic pokémon replied.

"Oh..." at first, Takeshi thought that Hiro wasn't asking neither of the two, he sighed in relief that he asked Riku's partner first. "We're at the Jublife Pokémon Center Hiro..." then he went closer to him and whispered something. Hiro's eyes widened for a second, but he masked it right after. "Blaze..."

"Hey, stop murmuring to yourselves and help us find Riku already..!" Akira yelled in irritation. Both of them turned to him and hesitated for a moment. "Sorry, we'll start looking for him in the eastern and northern parts of the city."

"Hmph...fine we'll look at the west and southern parts." Akira responded. Takeshi and Hiro walked out of the cafeteria and left the two pokémon alone.

"We better start too then." Mimi nodded and went out as well. "Riku...please be okay..."

* * *

A.N.: So...a new character and...well really, I hope you enjoyed it! The strange thing was...I never planned their reunion to become an argument...strange...


	19. Chapter 18: Gone and waiting to be found

A/N : Well this chapter seems to be a lot longer...oh wait, I think it's the longest one for this story! Yay! _*celebrates* _Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this story already reached a thousand hits...so, I am really grateful to all of you who have read my story, whether it had been curiosity or other reasons...anyway, I'm still hoping for reviews and there's also a poll at my profile if you want this story to be updated more often. I stalled you long enough, please enjoy the 18th chapter of _Pokemon : Land and Knight_! ;3

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Chapter 18 - Gone and waiting to be found

"Now if I were Riku where would I hide?" Takeshi mumbled as he and his partner were searching around the area. They couldn't see him anywhere, and the crowds didn't help. There seemed to be more people around than awhile ago...not that he would know anyway.

Hiro sighed, and then the blaze pokémon picked Takeshi up with his arm and leaped to one of the smaller buildings. "H-hey Hiro! What did you that for?!" he said after his partner put him down. A bunch of other people was staring at the both of them now...

"Blaziken." Hiro pointed at the view ahead of them. "Blazi-blaziken-blaze?"

"Hiro...you know I don't speak pokémon. Only Senri does that." the fire pokémon face-palmed. This time he moved his arm slowly from where he was pointing to another side. "Blazi, _blaziken_?"

"Oh I get it, you're saying that Riku's hiding on one of the rooftops right?" this time Hiro lightly punched Takeshi on the head. "Oww...what was that for?"

"_For being an idiot_." the pokémon thought. Hiro decided if his trainer couldn't understand, then he'll have to depend on his own abilities to find the boy.

Hiro carried Takeshi again and jumped down from the building. People were still watching, but not all of them seemed worried, more of surprised. Well you don't get to see a Hoenn starter in the Sinnoh region everyday right? Plus the fact that it looked like it jumped on that building out of the blue. For some who haven't seen a Blaziken, it seems quite shocking...

"Blazi." the fire pokémon said in a commanding tone. Even Takeshi understood what his partner said, and he didn't like it.

"What do you mean stay here?! You're not going to look for Riku by yourself!" Takeshi said angrily.

"Blaze-Blaziken." the pokémon replied.

"I'm coming with you no matter what you say! It's my fault Riku's gone so I have to find him!" Hiro simply stared at his trainer, wondering what to do. He can't just disobey orders...although it would be a lot easier and faster to find him without carrying someone...but...

"...blaze." Takeshi smiled. "Thanks Hiro." the blaze pokémon carried him again in his arms and then he jumped to another building, still wondering and hoping they could find him soon.

* * *

Meanwhile...

"Riku...where are you?" Akira and Mimi have been looking around while trying to avoid being picked up by another trainer...or practically anybody. It's irritating that if you're a pokémon and you have no trainer, people would presume that you're either a lost pokémon or a wild one. Yet since they're in the city, thankfully the latter wouldn't be the first conclusion that would come in their minds, or else they would have to avoid a lot of thrown poké balls...

"Bun-bun..." Mimi sat on the road and gave a tired face.

"Mimi...you can't be exhausted already?" the brown bunny replied with a small whimper. The psychic pokémon extended his hand towards the other pokémon. "Come on, we have to keep looking. The sooner we find him, the sooner we can rest alright?" Mimi smiled weakly, and took Akira's hand.

"We can't give up yet okay Mimi?" she nodded in reply, and then the both of them continued to walk around in search for the boy.

* * *

"Where is that kid?!" Takeshi nearly shouted while Hiro still holding onto him. They already searched the eastern and northern areas but they couldn't spot him. The two even tried looking around at the western and southern parts while they were at it and they didn't see him their either...they couldn't even spot Akira and Mimi there because the crowds were getting bigger and bigger.

"Calm down Takeshi...let's think this over..." Hiro was surprised, was he actually using his brain for once? Nah...maybe he'll just come up with some stupid answe--

"He's at Route 218! Of course...why didn't I think of it sooner..!" he suddenly exclaimed. Hiro looked at him with a confused face. "Blaziken?"

"Riku likes quiet places remember? The only place that seems pretty deserted now is there! Besides, only fishermen and a few trainers who want to go to Canalave City pass through there...a nice comfort zone don't ya think?" the fire pokémon was shocked...that actually made sense...

"Blaze-blaziken!" Takeshi nodded, and then Hiro, with little effort, made it to the edge of the city. The two were standing nearby a green sign with a gray-ish outline. It wasn't that tall, but it was probably close to the teen's height. The sign read 'Route 218', the place where Riku was most likely to have been hiding from the group.

Takeshi and Hiro were walking around; trying to make sure they weren't missing anything. They were standing in front of a small field of grass; leading to some sort of lake...well it was hard to tell with all the rocks surrounding it. But that didn't matter to them now of course, they were searching for a kid who could have gotten lost or is in terrible pain for pete's sake!...I'm sorry that was random, please continue without noticing me..._*hides in a corner*_

"Hey mister," Takeshi asked while gently tapping a nearby fisherman. The man was wearing an orange and white cap to cover the sunlight and his eyes. He had an orange vest over a white shirt and brown pants. His black boots seem firmly rooted on the ground, and by the looks of it, will not be moving soon. The teen wondered how he can just sit there for long periods of time without moving? It's like he was a statue except he was holding a silver fishing rod.

"H-huh? What do you want kid?" the fisherman didn't seemed too thrilled that he was just bothered. "I felt a tug in my line and you disturbed me!"

"S-sorry...I was about to ask you if you've seen a child with brown hair around here..." Takeshi didn't imagine a guy can be this grumpy over fishing..!

"...can't help ya, I've been staring at the water for quite awhile so I couldn't see anybody behind me," Takeshi sighed in disappointment. "Though I did hear someone come through here not long ago. He might be the kid you're looking for."

"Really?! Do you know where he went?"

"Not sure, but he might have been headed to that small forest there." the fisherman pointed to a group of trees. "You better be careful kid. That forest may seem small, but there were times that some trainers would get lost there for hours. They wander too far of the lake, and then they go astray."

"Heh, don't worry 'bout me mister." Takeshi grinned. "I've been traveling around for three years! One forest won't stop me!" the fisherman couldn't help but smile at the teen's confidence.

"Alright. But heed my warning; don't go too far away from the water. That's the only guide you have back to this route." Takeshi nodded. "You may also encounter a lot of wild pokémon, so stay alert..."

"Okay, okay I get it mister. You don't have worry! Come on Hiro! We better find Riku before lunchtime!" the blaze pokémon sighed and the two entered the forest.

"Hm..." the fisherman was in deep thought, and then a picture of a child crossed his mind. The kid looked so happy, because in that memory, he caught his first pokémon with a rod. The man still remembered the Magikarp flopping around as his son waved it proudly. That Magikarp became his first pokémon, and had already evolved into a Gyarados not long after. He sighed when he recalled when his son said he wanted to be a pokémon trainer instead of staying with him and his mother.

"_Stop saying that I can't do it dad! I will become a pokémon trainer!"_ those words were still swimming around his head every now and then. What gave him shivers was when he wanted to prove himself by entering the forest and catching a strong pokémon to show that he can handle himself. It took nearly a day to find him again, crying in the dark. Even with that frightening experience, he still insisted on becoming one. The man kept refusing, and soon, it just..._snapped_.

"Please forgive me...come back..." he mumbled while a few tears rolled down his eyes.

* * *

"Riku..! Riku where are you?!" Takeshi yelled along with Hiro's cries. The whole forest felt deserted...they haven't even seen or heard a pokémon either...the two don't really know how long they have been in there. But it felt hours for the teen, while it felt like around ten minutes for the blaze pokémon. And Hiro would seem more accurate don't you think?

"Man...where is he? If he got hurt..." he paused, and then shook his head. "I can't break my promise to Senri...I can't--" suddenly Hiro covered Takeshi's mouth. That followed the teen trying to take his partner's hand off his face with muffled shouts. The blaze pokémon made a gesture to keep quiet, and then Takeshi stopped struggling.

"You hear something Hiro?" he whispered. He nodded in response, and while holding his trainer's hand, Hiro took slow steps as his ears were trying to pick up the same sound he heard before...a scream.

"Blazi-ken!" the pokémon said with anger. Out of the blue, a loud shriek was heard. Hiro was sure of it, that was Riku, and he's in trouble. _Big_ trouble.

The fire pokémon quickly pulled his trainer to the direction he heard not long ago. Takeshi was trying his best to keep up, but it felt more like he was flying than running. Hiro dodged every tree and made sure he wasn't going to get hit by any, though in his rush to find Riku, Takeshi was getting scraped pretty badly. "Ow, oww....gah! Hiro-ow-slow down!" the teen yelled. Hiro just pushed it off, the kid will probably in more danger if they were traveling in human speed.

Finally, they reached a small clearing in the middle of the forest. But it wasn't empty; there were around four figures there. One being a human no bigger than a ten year old child, and the three others were surely pokémon.

"Riku!" as soon as Hiro let go of Takeshi's arm, the teen ran towards the kid standing there in front of the three pokémon. At first, the boy was bewildered as to where the voice came from. But when Takeshi ran out of their hiding place, he quickly smiled. "Takeshi!"

"Are you okay Riku?! You're not hurt right?!"

"I'm okay...I just have a few scratches that's all..." he said a bit weakly. Riku still had a big grin on his face, but it was clear that he was tired. His body was full of small slashes and there was a lot of dirt on his clothes, also his hair was messy with a few leaves. Takeshi sighed in relief that there wasn't some kind of gaping wound on him...he would never forgive himself if Riku got badly hurt.

"Scizor!" and the two were so happy with their reunion that they nearly forgot the furious pokémon behind them. The pokémon that spoke must have been the leader since it was different from the other two behind him. The pokémon had a red exoskeleton and stood on its two legs. It also had two large claws, and two-lobed wings like a butterfly. Clearly, it was a bug type pokémon, and its yellow eyes seem to be focused on Riku. The pokémon didn't seem too pleased with Takeshi's sudden appearance.

Takeshi swiftly turned back to his friend and whispered. "What did you do?!"

"Nothing I swear!...wait, probably it was when I entered their territory..?" Takeshi did a mental face-palm.

"Great...we have to fight them. Why is there somehow always a catch whenever something good happens?" he mumbled. "Hiro! Looks like we have a challenger!" as soon as the teen said that, the blaze pokémon leaped from the bushes and landed in front of the two, its stance meant it was ready to battle.

"Scyther-scyther!" one of the two pokémon behind the leader started to walk towards Hiro. The pokémon looked like it was also a bug type pokémon, with scythes instead of claws. Most of its body was color green, and it had a pair of cream-colored wings. Its face though, looks like a reptile with three points at the end.

"Scizor...scizor!" the leader pushed the other away. Its expression reading that it wanted to battle the blaze pokémon himself. The two bug pokémon quickly stepped back, and just stayed in the sidelines.

"Blaziken-blaze!!" Hiro smiled broadly. The opponent also made a small smile, a confident grin to be more precise.

"You're not exhausted to stand are you Riku?" Takeshi whispered again.

"Like what I said, I'm fine--" then the kid winced slightly. "Though maybe it would be better if you finished the battle quickly." the teen nodded in reply, and then faced his pokémon and his opponent.

"Ready Hiro? Start with Flamethrower!"


	20. Chapter 19: Found and Fighting for it

Chapter 19 - Found and Fighting for it

Hiro did as Takeshi commanded and quickly shot out a sea of flames from his mouth directly at the bug type pokémon. Takeshi at that point remembered his pokédex and decided to check it out for a quick review. The teen grabbed the red machine from his pocket and flicked it open; it blinked back on and scanned the pokémon immediately in front of him. "Scizor, the Pincer pokémon. It threatens enemies with its eye-patterned claws, which can swing with tremendous force when used in battle." it stated with a girl's voice.

"Bug/Steel type huh...this battle's gonna be easier than I thought!" he muttered to himself. Only then he realized the pokémon swiftly dodged the fire attack with ease, and struck Hiro with its claw with powerful force. The blaziken fell on the ground, but got up again and smirked, like it was enjoying it. "Okay Hiro, Quick Attack, then Fire Punch!" Takeshi shouted. The fire type sprinted towards its enemy rapidly, making Scizor letting his guard up. What the bug type didn't expect was the quick side-step Hiro made to get behind him. "Sci-?"

"Blazi!" as soon as Scizor turned the blaziken punched him with his fist on fire, sending him flying into the air and hitting the floor with a loud thump. The pincer pokémon tried to shake it off, but the attack was a direct hit, and being a fire type attack, you could still see the burn where he was punched. "Sci...zor..." he panted. Yet his face held a different story, it was filled with determination, no way he was going to lose against a flightless bird when he himself can fly higher than-suddenly, the pokemon's face lit up, and turned to the sky.

Out of the blue Scizor jumped up into the air, opening its oval-shaped wings. Hiro could do nothing but watch as the pincer pokémon glided upwards because of an updraft and went higher and higher until they couldn't see him anymore because of the sunlight. When he was sure that he was just right behind the brightness, his position changed into a diving one, and began his quick descent. "Watch out Takeshi!" Riku shouted while flinching from his wounds. "Scizor's gonna use the sun to make a direct attack!" the teen glanced at him and nodded swiftly. "Do a Fireblast at Scizor Hiro!"

The blaziken looked up and saw the pokémon approaching closer and closer. Without thinking, Hiro dodged the hit at the exact moment Scizor was about to strike him, then preceded to a Flamethrower. The pincer pokemon's claw was stuck because he was about to do a Metal Claw on his opponent, and that made him an easy target. The flames burned Scizor badly as soon as it hit him, and after it subsided, the only thing that was left was a burnt bug type pokémon with swirly eyes.

"Blazi-ken!" the fire type cried happily. Takeshi walked closer to him with a smile on his face, and then when he was beside his partner, punched him hard on the elbow. "_Blazi!_" it shouted angrily at his trainer after the attack.

"Why didn't you do as I said awhile ago?" the teen yelled.

"Blaze-blaziken!" he yelled back. Even though Takeshi didn't really understand what he had just said, he had a pretty good idea, and continued to argue. Riku didn't know how to intervene, so all he could do was watch the two fighting. The boy then noticed Scizor getting up with the help of the two other pokémon from before. One of them faced Riku and made an apologetic face, making the boy smile back in return. It nodded in reply and focused on carrying their leader back into the forest, leaving the three alone. "Uh...you guys?" he said as he walked towards them. The two immediately stopped arguing and faced him. "Thanks for saving me." he beamed.

"Blaze-blazi." the blaze pokémon replied.

"Yeah, no problem. Anyway, let's get outta here. We still need to treat your wounds." Takeshi followed.

"And yours." Riku added. The teen glanced at his arms and laughed, saying it was Hiro's fault he ended up that way. The blaziken just scoffed in return and began to walk into the path they entered before, with the pair following him.

* * *

"So...how do we get out again?" Riku asked. Takeshi glanced at him and continued to walk forward; Hiro was back in his poke ball since he said it was annoying for him to stay out. "We just have to stick close to the riverside that's all."

"But the river isn't even near to where we are." he replied, worried that the teen has gotten them even more lost than before. "Don't worry Riku! We'll get outta here...eventually."

"Takeshi admit it, you have no idea where we are." he muttered sadly. The teen couldn't do anything but stay silent, the forest was deadly quiet, and they haven't encountered any pokémon on the way besides the occasional flying pokémon above the trees. Suddenly, the silence was broken by a rustling sound in the nearby bushes. Takeshi was already holding Hiro's poke ball in case he needed to bring him out and Riku was also on guard for what was happen. But then out came a figure that looked familiar to the teen. "Hey! You're the fishing guy I saw before!" he said, surprised.

"I have a name kid, it's Yuasa." he replied, a little annoyed by what he called him.

"You know him?" Riku asked, relaxing a little. "Yeah, I met him awhile ago while looking for you." Takeshi responded.

"Oh, so this was the kid you were searching for..." he walked closer to Riku and smiled. "Glad to see you're safe. The Scizor here is one dangerous leader."

"We've met him." Takeshi muttered. "Anyway, can you show us the way out? We don't really know where to go." he grinned sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head with his hand. Mr. Yuasa slightly chuckled and nodded, gesturing them to follow him as he faced the opposite direction. "Are you sure it's okay? I mean...we're not bothering you are we?" Riku asked again.

"It's fine kid, I fish every day. Doing something else for a change feels nice."

* * *

Soon, the two kids were faced with the bright light of the sun, this time with no trees hindering its harshness. They were out, and that's what mattered to the both of them. "Thank you sir for leading us out there." Riku said while bowing. The man laughed while putting his arms on his waist, and patted the boy's head. "No problem! And you don't have to be so formal; you can just call me Yuasa." Riku smiled, and then turned to Takeshi. "Where's Akira and Mimi?"

"U-uh..." his eyes darted away to the river. "They're looking for you too around the city..."

"_What_? We have to find them right away-!" suddenly, Riku flinched as he clutched his arm tightly. Takeshi then stomped closer to the boy and told him to let him see. Riku refused, but he was able to release the grasp anyway. "_Riku!_ Why didn't you tell me you were badly hurt?" he yelled at the deep wound hidden in his sleeve. It was bleeding now, and Takeshi was worried that it may have been infected already. "I'm fine! T-this is nothing!" Riku shouted back, trying not to scream from the sudden pain in his shoulder.

"Yuasa where's the hospital?" he yelled urgently as he ignored Riku's protests. The man quickly led them to the white building immediately, which fortunately were only a few blocks from where they were. As they entered the hospital, Riku had gotten exhausted from the events awhile ago, and they weren't able to bind the wound because they were in a hurry. It was bleeding more than before, and Riku was already losing consciousness. "Hey! Riku don't you dare pass out on me!" Takeshi shouted as he was carrying the boy on his back. He blinked, and saw that the teen was running in a white hall leading to the examination room. When they got there, he couldn't keep up, and slept.

* * *

**A/N : *celebrating* I finally finished the 19th chapter after almost three months! Yay~! It feels good to stick with my old characters again.**

**The battle ended up short, I've noticed. You can't blame Flamethrower being ultra effective now can you? And the hospital part was sort of a spur of the moment. I was originally planning for Riku to meet Akira and Mimi in this chapter, but never mind, that'll be in the next one.**

**So Happy...please review too! I also noticed this is technically my 20th chapter, so yay~**

**Thank you for all who have read my story. I gladly appreciate it!  
**


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